Fresh homemade ciabatta bread

I know what you are already thinking, especially if you’re living somewhere where it’s very hot and you do not have air conditioning. “Why are you posting a bread recipe in August?!” I’m glad you asked, and I have two reasons to give. First off, I had a craving and it’s hard to say no to a craving no matter what time of year it is. The second reason is because we live in a climate where the summer has mostly felt like spring, so it’s easy to keep on baking no matter what time of year it is. And I love baking. I really love baking.

I don’t actually bake a lot of bread, at least not recently, but when I do my favorite kinds to make are of the rustic variety. There’s just something about fresh, rustic bread that is hard to resist: the crusty outside, the spongy inside, and the feeling of accomplishment.

I realized after making my first rustic bread that it really isn’t as hard to make as it appears. I think Americans are so used to soft, overly glutinous breads that to think of making a boule or baguette makes the heart palpitate and the glands sweat. There’s no need, because rustic bread is less about difficulty and more about patience because of the time needed to allow the bread to rise and do its thing.

After eating store-bought ciabatta bread throughout the years, I finally decided to try my hand at making it for the first time a couple of years ago or so. When I made it, I chose to make it using only white flour, but I decided that at some point I would attempt using at least some whole wheat. I did this for the first time this last weekend, and I am pleased to say that it turned out well! It’s not fully whole wheat – that may be a future experiment – but all the recipe needed was just a little bit more water since I did use some whole wheat (which tends to soak up more water than plain white flour).

Ciabatta Bread
This recipe is based on the one found in No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway

IMPORTANT: If you choose to use only white flour, reduce the water in the biga to 1 cup, and the water in the Ciabatta to 1 1/2 cups. If you don’t, the dough will be much too runny!

Biga

• 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 cups whole wheat flour

Ciabatta

• 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 4 cups white flour
• 2 teaspoons salt dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
• White flour for dusting

The evening before you bake your bread, proceed with making the biga. First, mix your yeast and warm water in a large glass or ceramic bowl.

Mixing the yeast and the warm water

Add in the whole wheat flour, and stir until everything is well combined. The dough should be wet like a biscuit dough.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight at room temperature. You can let it ferment for up to 18 hours.

Making the biga

The next day your biga should look similar to my next pictures. You’ll see that it will have risen a little bit, and the whole mixture will be covered with little bubbles. When you take off the plastic wrap, there should be a slightly sour smell. If it is more than slightly sour – that’s okay! The point is to get the starter active and fermented.

Fermented biga

When you are ready to proceed making your ciabatta bread, add the lukewarm water from the second portion of your recipe to a larger bowl then sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir until the yeast is dissolved.

Mixing the water and yeast together

Next add the biga into the water and yeast mixture. It will take a few minutes and some patience, but mix the liquid and the biga together until it’s pretty well combined.

Mixing the biga with the yeast mixture

Add the flour and the salt mixture, and mix well. The dough will be soft and sticky, which is exactly what you want. You don’t want the dough to be too dry. Remember – this is a rustic loaf you’re making, not an American loaf which tends to have a drier dough.

Mixing the flour and biga/yeast mixture together

Cover the dough and let it stand in a warm place for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. What I like to do is turn on the oven for a couple of minutes (not much more than that – you don’t want it to be too warm), then turn it off and let the bowl sit in there. This is especially a good idea if you’re house is cold. It’s easier to get bread to rise in a warmer environment.

Tip: If you are using plastic wrap, spray it with some cooking oil first and then cover the bowl – this will make it so the dough does not stick to the plastic wrap. It will be easier to remove the plastic wrap later, and you won’t lose any dough either.

The first rise

After the first rise is complete, take a spatula and lift up the dough and fold it over on itself. Do this a handful of times. This allows the gluten to rest. Cover it again and allow it to rise a second time for about 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Allowing the gluten to rest

I loosened the plastic wrap a little bit so that the dough could rise beyond the top of the bowl without having to press up against the wrap too much. This was probably a good thing because my dough went a little crazy! It was fun to see, though, and no harm done.

I think the dough has risen!

The recipe in the No Need to Knead book says that at this point you can refrigerate the dough, and two hours before you form your bread for baking, you can take the dough out of the refrigerator. It will rise again and it should be soft and silky.

I don’t like to wait, though, so I forged on ahead.

Every time I have made ciabatta I have used a little bit too much flour when I have dusted my baking pans (if you use too much flour, it can burn and smoke up the kitchen – not a good idea), so I decided to take a different approach this time. First, instead of using just a cookie sheet, I used a silicone baking liner on the cookie sheet, then dusted that lightly with flour. In the picture I am using a small tea strainer (which worked perfectly!).

Dusting the pan with flour

Dump the dough onto the cookie sheet.

Getting ready to shape the dough

Divide the dough into two equal pieces and place the other half on another cookie sheet. Stretch the dough so it winds up looking like a large rectangle.

Stretching the ciabatta dough

Fold over each end of the dough, but not so they are touching.

Folding the ciabatta dough

Allow the dough to rise another half hour or until it has doubled in volume.

The final rise

About 20 minutes into the final rise, preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (yeah, I hear you people who have hot hot weather right now – how about you just bookmark this recipe for fall, hm?).

I don’t have a picture of this, but after the dough has finished rising, turn it over so that the folded portion is on the bottom of the loaf instead of the top. It isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, and if you have your dough a little misshapen after you turn it over, no worries – you can award yourself more points for an even more rustic loaf!

Place the two formed loaves of dough into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn down the oven temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 15 minutes. But honestly, you may only need an additional five to 10 minutes. Just keep your eye on it and take it out when it is a nice brown on top.

In the oven!

Once the bread has finished baking, allow it to cool. When you first take it out of the oven, it will seem quite hard on the outside, but as it cools it will soften a little and have some give when you squeeze it.

Finally! Ciabatta bread!

When you cut it, you’ll find that your loaf will have some large holes in it. Mine didn’t have uniform holes, so some portions of the bread were a little more dense.

Holey ciabatta bread, Batman!

And how to cut it? I like to slice the loaf in half like you see in the above picture, then I like to cut those pieces in half, then finally I like to cut those pieces in half lengthwise. Perfect for sandwiches, dipping in olive oil or vinegar, or just slathering with some vegan butter. Very yum.

Do you ever bake bread? What is your favorite kind to make?

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

After launching my new Facebook fan page for Novel Eats, I asked if anyone had requests for pre-Thanksgiving recipes. Someone suggested pumpkin cinnamon rolls, and others chimed in that they would love to see them. Sadly, as you can tell, it’s a little post-Thanksgiving. With traveling, vacation time, and still trying to get our bearings in Washington, I just couldn’t post until now. I did make these before the holiday, if that counts!

Big disclaimer – this is a very experimental recipe. I haven’t played around with the cinnamon rolls recipe too much, so I still have to figure out what its limitations are in relation to all the ideas floating out there. Since it’s an experiment, this is a smaller batch, but even then I found I had to add extra flour for the dough to be firm and smooth after the additional moisture that the pumpkin puree brought to the recipe. I also discovered that it would probably do better to bake at a lower temperature for longer, because the dough was still too doughy after baking the rolls. If you choose to experiment with this recipe, I’ve added some notes throughout that may help you have a more successful batch than I.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Note: Since I was experimenting with this recipe, this is basically a half batch of the regular cinnamon rolls recipe that I posted a few months ago.

• 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ¼ cup unbleached sugar
• ¼ cup pumpkin puree (Idea: increase the pumpkin for a stronger flavor, but you’ll need to reduce the liquid in the recipe as well as probably add even more flour)
• ½ cup vegan milk, warmed
• Egg replacer the equivalent of one egg OR 1tablespoons ground flax seeds whisked together with 3 tablespoons hot water
• 3 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
• 2 ¾ cups unbleached flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon (Idea: maybe reduce this and add some other ground spices like nutmeg, ginger and allspice)
• 3 tablespoons vegan butter, softened
• Optional: raisins, nuts

Mix yeast, sugar, and heated vegan milk in a large mixing bowl and let stand until foamy. Add egg replacer, pumpkin, melted vegan butter, flour, and salt.

Making pumpkin cinnamon rolls

Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not sticky. Note that I kept having to add flour to the mixer at this stage until it looked pliable like this. It was too sticky of a dough otherwise. My suggestion would be to add a tablespoon of flour at a time so as to not accidentally make it too dry.

Set the dough aside in a covered bowl and let double in size.

Mixing the dough

After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured work surface, cover, and let rest for 10 more minutes.

As the dough is resting, mix the cinnamon with the brown sugar.

After the dough has rested, roll it out into a rectangle.

Preparing the dough

Spread dough with vegan butter, then sprinkle each dough evenly with your sugar mixture. You can add other items to your filling like nuts or raisins.

Adding the good stuff

Roll the dough on the longer side, then cut the rolls so that you have even slices. Tip – use a serrated knife – it’s so much easier!

Rolling and cutting the dough

Place rolls in a lightly greased baking pan. (A cookie sheet also works fine.) Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.

Letting the rolls rise

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (Idea: I would try reducing the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit), and make your vegan cream cheese frosting. I just came across this vegan cream cheese made by Follow Your Heart, the company that is responsible for the goodness that is Vegenaise. Their cream cheese works great in the frosting recipe.

Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese Alternative

Bake rolls in your preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes (Idea: if you reduce the temperature, bake for 20 minutes and check to make sure they are done – if not, bake another five minutes and check again).

Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

In the end, these rolls did not taste a lot like pumpkin, but they were still good. I do wish that I had kept them in the oven for longer, but as you can see in the picture above, they were already getting brown on top. To be honest, I doubt that I will try to improve this recipe. While I like pumpkin, I do not like it enough to try to make this particular recipe work for me. I have too many other ideas I want to try – so be on the lookout for those in the future!

Yum.

Have you made pumpkin cinnamon rolls before? How did they turn out?

Cinnamon & Chocolate Rolls

A few days ago when I was going through all of my old recipe posts and tagging each with the appropriate ingredients, I soon realized that there was a little bit of a trend going on that I had not really noticed before. I have thought for most of my life that I am not a big one for sweets, but after tagging many of my recipes with the ingredient “sugar”, I realized that I do indeed have a sweet tooth. If anyone has this concept in their minds that a vegan diet is healthy, all they need to do is visit my blog and have a look at the “Browse by Ingredients” list. Sugar, vegan butter, salt… Now that we have that out of the way, let’s jump in and take a look at my latest sweet success (which, dear reader, was made as a thank you to my husband for all of his hard work on helping to make this redesign even possible).

A couple of years ago I was really craving cinnamon rolls – the warm, gooey and total comfort-food kind – and so when I came across a vegan recipe that had rave reviews, I thought that I had a winner on my hands. Unfortunately, the cinnamon rolls were a complete disaster and I wound up defeated and deflated. Of course, I gave up, that is, until a few weeks ago when I was craving them again. I did another search for a good recipe online and came across a recipe that claimed to be better than the rolls you can get at Cinnabon. Again, people raved. Again, I decided to follow the masses. Yet this time, I was so utterly blown away that I purposely held off on taking pictures and writing a blog post because I wanted to be sure to “have to” make them again for you. I finally succumbed and here we are, but believe me I’m trying to come up with another excuse to make them again very soon.

Cinnamon Rolls and Chocolate Rolls

Based upon this Better-than-Cinnabon’s recipe

Rolls

Note: One thing I want to point out is that I have only made this with flax seed as a binder and I have not used Ener-G egg replacer. I have no idea if this recipe turns out exactly the same or comparably if Ener-G were to be used instead. Because the flax has worked so well for me and because I have not been able to taste it (I hate the taste of flax) I just haven’t allowed myself to try the alternate method. If you do try it with Ener-G please report back to let us know how the rolls turned out for you.

• 2½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ½ cup unbleached sugar
• 1 cup vegan milk, warmed
• 2 eggs worth of egg replacer OR 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds whisked together with 6 tablespoons hot water
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, melted
• 4½ cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, softened
• Optional: chocolate chips, raisins, nuts

Frosting

Note: If, like me, you don’t care that much for icing or prefer to let your cinnamon or chocolate rolls shine on their own, then these are perfectly fine without. I will say, however, that this is a good icing recipe and I sometimes will have some. The reason why I probably like it is because it isn’t just about the sugar. The Tofutti cream cheese and the vegan butter give it a smooth and creamy flavor that you wouldn’t get if it were just a plain sugar icing.

• About 3/8 (3 ounces) of a container of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
• ¼ cup vegan butter, softened
• 1½ cup vegan powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

Mix yeast, sugar, and heated vegan milk in a large mixing bowl and let stand until foamy. Add egg replacer, melted vegan butter, flour, and salt.

Letting the yeast activate, then adding the other dry ingredients

Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not sticky.

Mixing the dough in the Kitchenaid Mixer

Set the dough aside in a covered bowl and let double in size.

I allowed my dough to sit for about an hour to an hour and a half

After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured work surface, cover, and let rest for 10 more minutes.

Letting the dough rest

Meanwhile, divide your brown sugar into two small bowls.

Getting ready to mix my cinnamon/chocolate roll fillings

Mix the cinnamon into one bowl of brown sugar, and mix the cocoa powder and vanilla into the other bowl of brown sugar.

Fillings are now ready!

Note: If you just want to do cinnamon rolls, increase your cinnamon to 2 tablespoons and mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, omitting the cocoa powder and vanilla extract. If you just want to do chocolate rolls, increase the cocoa to 2 tablespoons, the vanilla to 2 teaspoons, then mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, and omit the cinnamon.

After the dough has rested, get it into a shape that you can easily divide into two equal halves with a knife or by pulling it apart with your hands.

Dividing the dough in half

Note: If you are doing only one type of roll (i.e. cinnamon rolls) you will not need to divide your dough in half.

Take one half of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle. Here I am using the Vic Firth French Rolling Pin which I am totally and completely in love with.

Rolling out my cinnamon and chocolate roll dough

June 19: Be sure to enter my first ever giveaway for the chance to own your own french rolling pin. The giveaway ended on June 21st. See who won!

Spread dough with vegan butter, then sprinkle each dough evenly with one of the sugar mixtures.

Adding the filling to the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

You can add other items to your filling, like chocolate chips or raisins. I didn’t have any chocolate chips on hand, but I did have Trader Joe’s dark chocolate, which I just chopped up into chip-sized chunks.

I've added raisins to the cinnamon roll filling, and chocolate pieces to the chocolate roll filling

Roll the dough on the longer side.

Rolling the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

Cut the rolls so that you have even slices. I like to cut straight down the middle first (1), then cut straight down the middle of the two sections (2), and finally cut down the middle of the four sections (3). In the end you should have eight evenly sized rolls (or thereabouts) if you follow this method.

Cutting the rolls

Place rolls in a lightly greased baking pan (or two). (A cookie sheet also works fine.) Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip: Use a pie pan or a larger pan where your rolls are allowed to expand. I found that the chocolate rolls made in the pie pan were fatter than the cinnamon rolls made in the straight-sided glass dish.

Allowing the cinnamon and chocolate rolls to rise

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cinnamon (bottom) and chocolate (top) rolls straight out of the oven

While rolls are baking, beat together Tofutti, vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Making the vegan cream cheese frosting

Unless I’m told a better recipe exists or I somehow lose this recipe, I will never try another. The rolls are amazingly fluffy and gooey and are just perfect straight out of the oven. If you were to take these to your non-vegan friends no one would be the wiser. These taste and have the consistency of what you or they would expect in a cinnamon roll, and there’s no reason for them to suspect that they are vegan. They are seriously that good and perfect.

This is a great foundational recipe, too, because once you have dough that works this well, you can get very creative. I recently saw on The Pioneer Woman Cooks a marmalade/butter filling and an orange flavored icing. I think you could do other jams (strawberry jam sounds great!) or you could try fresh fruit. You could probably do vegan caramel or toffee. If you like coffee, you could probably even go there, too. But for me, my absolute favorite is just the basic, gooey cinnamon roll. Perfection.

Vegan cinnamon rolls

This is another post in a series focused on how to be more frugal in the kitchen. Recession or not, it’s a great feeling to know that you can create good homemade food for less.

I love pocket pita. I love dipping it in baba ghanoush or hummus, and I love cutting it in half and filling it with avocado and sprouts for a simple, yet delicious sandwich. I usually buy pita at the store, but lately I’ve decided to start making my own to save money. Not only that, it’s actually kind of fun to make pita because of how interesting it looks as it puffs up in the oven.

This is so easy that you’ll probably wonder why you haven’t gotten around to making it at home yourself. Sure, not every single pita puffs up the way you may hope, but it’s fresh and still tastes really nice.

The recipe I’ve been using comes from The Fresh Loaf, and has extra info and pictures that you may find helpful. I’ve replaced the non-vegan ingredients with vegan ones.

Pita Bread
This recipe makes 8 pitas

• 3 cups flour (white or whole wheat, or a mixture of the two is fine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar or agave nectar
• 1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, vegan butter, or shortening

If you are using active dry yeast, follow the instructions on the packet to activate it. Otherwise, mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar.

Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a spoon.

All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup).

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (or until your hands get tired). If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

(The purpose of kneading is to thoroughly combine the ingredients and to break down the flour so that the dough will become stretchy and elastic and rise well in the oven. A simple hand kneading technique is to firmly press down on the dough with the palm of your hand, fold the dough in half toward you like you are closing an envelope, rotate the dough 90 degrees and then repeat these steps, but whatever technique you are comfortable using should work.)

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

Here you can see that it has approximately doubled in size.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it’ll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough.

You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes.

It should start forming bubbles after about a minute of baking.

This one has awkwardly puffed up, so this one will likely be used for dipping in hummus.

This one has puffed up perfectly. I can cut this one in half and use it to make a sandwich by filling it up with hummus, avocado and sprouts.

If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn’t necessary.

Let’s figure out how much I’ve saved by making this at home.

I’ve grabbed all the following prices off of a random grocery store’s website I’ve found online. The final price may vary for you, but this should give you a general idea of how much you can save.

In my calculations below I am only including the cost of the flour and the yeast. The other ingredients are so minimal that it would be hard to figure out exactly how much they add to the cost of individual pitas. If you think it would be more accurate you could add on a few cents.

A package of store-bought pita costs $2.39 for six pitas, effectively making each pita cost $0.40.

One five-pound bag of flour contains 20 cups (thanks Google!). Whole wheat flour costs $3.19/five-pound bag (I believe it actually costs more than this at my local grocery store, but I don’t think it’s gone beyond the $4 mark yet), and all-purpose white flour costs $3.69/five-pound bag. So to figure out the cost of one cup of flour, you’d do $3.19/20=$0.16. A packet of yeast, which contains three sections of yeast, costs $2.59. Each section costs $0.86 ($2.59/3). I used one section in this recipe.

This recipe ultimately costs $1.36 for eight, but let’s compare the cost of a package of six pitas to the cost of six homemade pitas (assuming that we’ve used the same recipe to make six larger pitas as opposed to eight smaller pitas). I’ll show how much this would cost depending on a few different flour mixtures.

It’s amazing how much you can save by making your own pita at home (and you may be able to reduce the price even further by using natural yeast). The first time or two is a little time consuming, but once you’re used to making them it can go really fast. The thing to keep in mind is that you will need to make sure that you have time to make these since it does have rise time, plus the time it takes to bake them. I can usually bake two at a time, but since it only takes three minutes to bake them, the entire baking time is less than 20 minutes.

Do you make pita? Do you make it any differently? And how do you eat it?

I used to love pizza. When I was a kid I loved going to Pizza Hut, getting vegetable and cheese laden pizzas, and then later in high school ordering, with frequency, banana pepper pizza from Papa Johns. The last few years, though, not including my vegan lifestyle, I have grown to not really favor pizza that much. I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling it might have to do with my days in college where I’d get more gourmet versions of it: baby mozzarella, fresh garlic, tomatoes, and basil leaves.

Since being vegan, I have liked it even less because pizza usually equates a nice helping of melted cheese, and I’ll confess that cheeseless pizza can often (but not always) be disappointing.

This last month’s Daring Bakers challenge, however, reminded me that I need to try making it more often, experimenting with toppings, ingredients and flavors. The truth is – and I’ll contradict what I just said in the last paragraph (I’m so good at contradicting myself) – that the cheese that comes on a lot of average pizzas is low in flavor and mainly adds an interesting texture and unnecessary oil. I’m not knocking cheese entirely, but what really makes a good pizza is the other ingredients – the sauce, the toppings and last, but not least, the foundation of pizza – the crust.

Note that I’m pasting the recipe below as it was given to us on The Daring Bakers website – the pictures are mine, though.

Basic Pizza Dough
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled – FOR GF: 4 ½ cups GF Flour Blend with xanthan gum or 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup corn flour, 1 cup oat flour, 1 ½ cup arrowroot, potato or tapioca starch + 2 tsp xanthan or guar gum
• 1 3/4 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Instant yeast – FOR GF use 2 tsp
• 1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
• 1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
• 1 Tb sugar – FOR GF use agave syrup
• Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.

The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

Or

2. FOR GF: Add the oil, sugar or agave syrup and cold water, then mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour.

Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

Or

8. FOR GF: On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the number of desired dough balls from the refrigerator. Place on a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with a gluten free flour. Delicately press the dough into disks about ½ inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle the dough with flour, mist it again with spray oil. Lightly cover the dough round with a sheet of parchment paper and allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

Quick note from Samantha – good grief, this did not go as planned. What I wound up doing was rolling the dough out with a rolling pin which worked fine in the end.

Or

10. FOR GF: Press the dough into the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough).

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.
During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

Or

11. FOR GF: Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

Note from Samantha – I sauteed some mushrooms and onions, and topped as well with fresh basil and sliced black olives. The sauce was spaghetti sauce from a can.

Or

12. FOR GF: Place the garnished pizza on the parchment paper onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

Or

13. FOR GF: Follow the notes for this step.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

I think that this turned out well. The pizzas were fairly small (think individual size), but they still had a lot of taste. The crust was good, but I wouldn’t say it is the best I’ve had – but it’s a good basic standby. If I get into making pizzas more frequently, I’ll be sure to try other recipes.

I made a couple more pizzas yesterday from the leftover dough that I had in the freezer, and the dough still seemed fine even after three or four weeks. As an additional topping this time around I added fresh garlic, and it was really nice. I also made “cheese” which I promise I’ll share at some point soon.

This morning I thought I’d check in on the Daring Bakers website to see how much time I still had to make this month’s challenge. I discovered that today was my deadline! I had actually hoped to get this one created earlier in the month, but we had family over, then I was sick last week – and sadly I’m still sick. I am on the verge of wellness, so I figured that I could still make and post these lavash crackers and dip today. And hooray! Here we are!

I was very pleased to see that this month’s challenge was vegan. Usually every month I wind up doing some sort of science experiment by changing this ingredient to that and trying to get the ratio of the new ingredients to make sense. I’ve had a lot of interesting results, mostly good, but I was still so glad to see that us vegans and gluten free bakers can take a break and just make a recipe without having to think too hard.

I’ve made crackers before, but not of the lavash variety. This recipe, which I am posting mostly word for word, also has a gluten-free option which is great for people who have celiac disease. Note that I did not make gluten-free crackers – next time! :)

Lavash Crackers
Thank you to this month’s hosts – Shellyfish of Musings From The Fishbowl and Natalie of Gluten A Go Go

• 1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
• 1/2 teaspoon (.13 ounces) salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (.055 ounces) instant yeast (Note from Samantha – I used 1 full teaspoon because I’ve had this yeast for a while. It worked perfectly.)
• 1 tablespoon (.75 ounces) agave syrup (a.k.a. agave nectar) or sugar
• 1 tablespoon (.5 ounces) vegetable oil
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (3 to 4 ounces) water, at room temperature (Note from Samantha – I used about 1/3 cup water, and that was plenty.)
• Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter.

Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see WikiHow for a description of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

or

For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), and slightly tacky. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour.

Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down.

Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

or

For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt – a little goes a long way.

Quick note from Samantha – I used a variety of spices to vary the flavor. On some crackers I used garlic and salt, and on others I used dill. I also used this McCormick seasoning, Smoky Sweet Pepper.

If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

Note from Samantha – I found that 10 minutes worked pretty well. My suggestion would be to check this every five minutes and rotate the cookie sheet to try for evenly distributed baking. It all depends on your oven.

When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Final note from Samantha – I wound up dividing the dough into three sections, so I had three batches of crackers. Making the dough “paper thin” made it kind of impossible to fit on one cookie sheet, and two batches still didn’t seem quite right. It all depends on how much space you have in your oven, too. Our stove is one of those narrower ones, so we can only put our cookie sheets in the oven one way, and there’s most certainly not room for two cookie sheets on one rack.

I had hoped to create a soy-free dip for those of you who are anti-soy as well as for those of you who don’t have Tofutti where you shop, but it just didn’t happen. The nice thing about this recipe is that it is extremely flexible – so if you eat dairy, you can use regular cream cheese or if you’re vegan, you can probably create a creamy base with nuts like cashews or use tofu instead.

Artichoke and Sundried Tomato Dip

• 1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained
• 4 sundried tomatoes
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package Tofutti cream cheese, Plain

Check to see if there are any tough pieces of your artichoke hearts that need to be cut away. The tough areas will be on the outer leaves, and unless you blend the dip well then you’ll still run across tough pieces when eating it.

Put the artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, garlic cloves and salt into a food processor and pulse the ingredients until they are chopped.

Add the Tofutti cream cheese, and blend together for about 10 – 15 seconds.

Taste test at this point to see if you need to add any other ingredients or balance out the ones you have in there.

The end result will be a creamy and flavorful dip that goes well with these crackers.

These crackers turned out really well. I don’t make crackers very frequently, but it is definitely good to have another reliable recipe on hand for future use.

The dip was also a great accompaniment. Both my husband and I scarfed down a few crackers and quite a bit of dip before restraining ourselves so we’d still have some for later. That’s always a good sign. ;)

We rarely buy a loaf of bread. Sometimes we do, and we’ll buy variations of bread – like hot dog buns or bagels. But your standard loaf of bread is typically made at home. It’s cheaper, very easy, and tastes just as good if not better. It’s also nice to control and know exactly what is going into our bread.

But back to the easy part. We have a bread machine. That’s why we can get away with making it all the time. Sure, that no-knead bread is an easy substitute, but if you want to throw all of your ingredients in and press the start button, and then a few hours later discover that you have a loaf of bread – well, that’s the easiest type of homemade bread you can get.

This loaf of bread is somewhere in between the easier and easy.

I’ve been making almond milk nearly every weekend, and have wound up with more almond meal than I know what to do with. I decided to try putting it into bread, and what a smart thing to do. Although I can’t tell you that I really taste the almond meal, it does seem to give it an added moistness and softness that wouldn’t necessarily be there otherwise.

Almond Meal Bread

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 4 cups white or whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal (moist or dry should both work fine)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional if you don’t have)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon fast acting yeast

Put all of your ingredients into a bread machine pan in the order of listed ingredients. (Make sure the paddle is already in place – I’ve forgotten to do this once or twice, but thankfully not before putting it into the machine. Still – it’s messy).

Pour your water in first.

I used all whole wheat flour next.

Then I put in about one half cup of almond meal. As you can see, I am using fresh almond meal, but I think that dry would probably work fine.

Put in your salt, sugar, and nutritional yeast.

I have to tell you about nutritional yeast at some point. It’s the yellow stuff in this picture. We use it all the time, and it is so tasty. I’ll share a “cheese” recipe with you soon.

Next put in your vegan butter. It doesn’t matter if it is softened or not because the machine will wind up softening it anyway.

Finally put your yeast in last. Our yeast is a little old so I usually put in extra just in case. It still works!

Once you have all of your ingredients in the pan, put it into the machine (unless you have to have your pan in place already).

Set your bread machine to the dough cycle and let it mix. We sometimes have to scrape the sides of the pan while it’s mixing so that it will grab all of the ingredients.

Once it is done, take the pan out of the machine. It should have risen quite a bit so far.

Grease a cookie sheet or some other pan you plan to bake your bread in, and shape your dough as you wish on the pan. Since I am using just a regular cookie sheet I formed mine into a ball.

Cover it with a towel and allow the dough to rise for about half an hour (30 minutes). A few minutes before it has completely risen turn on the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can get creative and cut a design into the bread, or just leave it untouched.

Bake the bread at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes, but you may want to do it for slightly less depending on how your oven operates.

Once it is done allow it to cool, then slice and serve.

This turned out really well, although I have to say that it wound up a little flat so the slices were long and short. The taste was still good, and the bread was moist.

Unless you have any suggestions on how I can remedy the flatness of the bread, I am thinking that I may actually buy loaf pans. I also vaguely remember my grandmother using old metal cans (i.e. from buying peaches at the store). Have any of you done that? Is that safe?

Ever since I saw what this month’s challenge would be with the Daring Bakers, I kept trying to decide if I would do it or not. It wasn’t so much because it was challenging and time consuming. It was more about the fact that I’ve already gained a couple of pounds recently and it was clear this was going to be a calorie-filled pastry. Sure, I can share my creations with other people, but usually my husband and I willingly devour what we make.

As you can guess, I caved and spent much of yesterday working on this recipe.

I didn’t alter the recipe too much, but I did cut it in half because of the ridiculous amount of butter, which translates into a ridiculous amount of calories.

Unfortunately, I don’t have blow-by-blow pictures, but I’ll supply you with a video at the end that was shared with the Daring Bakers when we first learned what our fate for June would be.

Vegan Danish Braid

Danish Dough

• 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. marmalade
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Butter Block (Beurrage)

• 1/2 pound (1 stick) cold vegan butter
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour

Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a whisk. Add sugar, marmalade, and vanilla extract, and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a well. Make sure that the “walls” of your well are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the well. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the well, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature or refrigerate if too runny.

After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and 1/4 inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns (honestly, I didn’t, but I am thinking I did maybe up to six turns). Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Apple Filling
Makes enough for two braids

• 1 Fuji or other apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 – 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

Assembly

Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Proofing and Baking

Spray cooking oil onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

The dough actually didn’t rise, but I think that is because I didn’t put all the liquid into the dough when I was mixing it, so some of the yeast didn’t make it into the final dough. As a result, it wasn’t as flaky as it might have been if it had risen.

For the filling I actually used two different jams – black currant on half and peach on the other. I probably used 2 – 4 tablespoons of each, and both sides turned out well.

Overall this was good, and I got a good verdict from my husband. I may attempt this again at a time when I’m super skinny and the extra calories won’t matter. :)

Since I didn’t supply step-by-step pictures, here is a video that shows another method on how to make the pastry (disregarding the eggs and dairy, of course).

You can also watch this retro video of Julia Child and another baker making a Danish braid.

Vegan Dinner Rolls

• 2 1/2 cups flour (I wound up using only white flour.)
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/4 tsp. yeast (or one small package)
• 3/4 cup warm water
• Egg substitute to equal 1 egg (I used Ener-G)
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• Melted butter (Optional; I did not use this.)

Mix 1 cup flour with the sugar, yeast and salt. Stir in warm water, egg substitute and oil. Beat until smooth (this will be very runny). Cover with a hand towel and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Stir in remaining flour and knead for about three minutes on a floured surface. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 12 rolls and arrange in a greased baking pan or muffin tin. Cover and let rise another 15-20 min.

Optional: brush tops with melted margarine. Bake at 425 degrees F for 8-10 min or until slightly brown.

While these were mostly good, I admit that I wasn’t totally satisfied with this recipe. The recipe had been highly rated, and typically I have good results with recipes that have a lot of good feedback.

First off, they should have stayed in the oven for longer. They look very toasty in the pictures, but that is because I put them in the toaster oven for a few minutes more. Additionally, I should have cut down on the yeast a little bit. I probably used more than what the recipe called for because our yeast is a little old (there are some items that we tend to buy in bulk which has its pros and cons), which resulted in a strong yeast flavor.

This was a very easy recipe, however, and I’d be willing to give it another crack.

Each issue usually has a few recipes in it about what to do with your home-grown or locally grown crops. I keep swearing to myself that I will try one or two, but up until now I have not done it. The December 2007/January 2008 issue, however, offered up a bread recipe so easy and good looking that I had to try. They call it Easy, No Knead Crusty Bread – I call it Wow-I’ve-Actually-Made-Bread-That-Looks-Like-It-Came-From-A-Bakery Bread…okay, okay, I’m really calling it Homemade Artisan Bread.

Homemade Artisan Bread
This comes from Mother Earth News, which also posted the Easy, No Knead Crusty Bread article and recipe on their website.

• 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting. You may use white, whole wheat or a combination of the two. (I used 1 cup all-purpose, 2 cups whole wheat)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran for dusting

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the flour and salt, stirring until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at least 8 hours, preferably 12 to 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. (Our apartment is not exactly the warmest, but the dough still managed to rise really well.)

The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or to your fingers, gently shape it into a ball. Generously coat a clean dish towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal (I used whole wheat flour). Put the seam side of the dough down on the towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another towel and let rise for about 1 to 2 hours. When it’s ready, the dough will have doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. (I was disappointed to discover that the dough was not rising, and thought for sure that I had done something wrong. It still turned out fine, so there was nothing to worry about.)

At least 20 minutes before the dough is ready, heat oven to 475 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. (Make sure whatever you use is oven-safe!) When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven and lift off the lid. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. The dough will lose its shape a bit in the process, but that’s OK. Give the pan a firm shake or two to help distribute the dough evenly, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. Remove the bread from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing.

I was very happy to discover that everything went really well. I thought for sure that the oven would be too hot (475 seemed too high) or that the dough not rising during that last hour to two would mean a failed loaf of bread.

It was truly like slicing and eating bread that had been bought at a local bakery. The outside was crusty and beautiful and the inside was spongy. I was amazed. Usually my husband is tasked with making bread, and he makes a nearly-perfect loaf every time. He follows no recipe; he just dumps whatever ingredients he wants into the bread machine and a few hours later I hear him exclaiming, “Yet another great loaf. Damn, I’m good!” It was so nice to try my hand at it and succeed as well.

I would like to experiment a little with this recipe, however. I think it would be great to try adding fresh garlic to the bread or sprinkle in rosemary. It seems like it would be best to add either later in the process in case the yeast would interact poorly with them. I am also wondering if there is a way to achieve a sour version of this loaf without something like sourdough starter. Perhaps citrus acid could work or possibly a plain yogurt (I’d use soy).

At any rate, this will be one I will make again. It’s extremely easy to make, and it turned out beautifully. Here’s a closeup of that lovely crust: