Dinner on the Porch: Breads

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

Toasted Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread with fig jam

I think I’ve gotten a little bread crazed of late. Although this is another sandwich bread recipe, I’ve actually been baking all sorts of bread deliciousness - from crusty artisan bread to homemade buttermilk dinner rolls… I really cannot overstate the goodness and comfort of homemade bread. Because you cannot get any fresher bread than the bread that comes from your own oven. I’ve made this particular bread on Sunday for the last three weeks (make that four weeks since I had to make another loaf to photograph for the blog) and now I cannot bring myself to buy a loaf of sandwich bread at the store. Yes, this bread is that good and that easy. And the maple smell that will waft through your house as it’s baking will make you a believer too…

This bread is fantastically delicious toasted, with butter as it’s only adornment. However, I have been known to enjoy it with peanut butter, or goat cheese that’s been softened and then topped with fig jam. It elevates a simple ham and cheese to greatness. And I can only imagine how ridiculous bread pudding would be made with a loaf of this bread. How about some French toast…well, let’s not even go there…

Finding this recipe was more a stroke of luck than anything else – lucky, because I didn’t throw the recipe away before giving it a try! In addition to the 40 plus cookbooks I have, I also keep a notebook for other recipes that are shared with me or those that I have torn from a magazine and promised myself I’ll try at some point. In the notebook I've used tabs to divide the recipes into categories and every now and then I sit down and flip through what I've saved and discard the recipes that have been hanging around for too long that I have never attempted to make. This bread recipe was one that was heading for the discard pile because I’m pretty sure it’s been in that notebook for close to three years…just waiting. So with my current obsession for homemade bread in full force and the fact that it has maple syrup in it…well, I couldn’t let the opportunity to try a new sandwich bread recipe pass me by. This bread is worth making for your family on a weekly basis...I think I've officially decided to stop buying sandwich bread at the store because of this recipe. I hope you'll give it a try.

Maple Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
from Bon Appetit Magazine

** If you don’t have maple syrup or maple extract on hand, omit both of those ingredients and sub in ¼ cup of honey – this substitution also makes a great bread**

You will need:

A stand mixer

9x5 bread pan

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water (heated to 105-115 degrees)
1 egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup maple syrup (grade B) - I have used regular Grade A, the maple flavor is a little lighter

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup old fashioned oats (I use Quaker Oats – not the Instant)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons active yeast

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, add all of the ingredients in the order they are listed. Mix on low until the ingredients begin to come together and then knead on medium for 8 minutes.

Remove the dough from the dough hook and leave dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a towel. Allow to rise at warm room temperature about 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Butter the 9x5 bread pan all the way up the sides and set aside. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead for 1-2 minutes. Shape the dough, with any seam side down, into an 8 x 3 inch loaf – so that the ends almost touch the inside ends of the bread pan. Place loaf in buttered bread pan and cover with plastic wrap that has been buttered to prevent it sticking to the bread.

Allow bread to rise for approximately 45 minutes or until it has risen 1 1/2 inches above the top lip of the pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the temperature is 180 degrees.

All ingredients in mixing bowl, added to bowl in order listed

After being mixed/kneaded on medium speed for 8 minutes

Dough, after first rise

Dough ready to be kneaded by hand for 1 minute

Stretch dough enough to be able to fold in half

Dough folded in half...

Use heal of hand to apply pressure and push away from you

Turn dough 1/4 turn, seam will be on the right, stretch dough again enough to fold in half

Repeat this process, folding, then using heal of hand to apply pressure and push dough away from you, 1/4 turn, etc., for 1-2 minutes

Dough is ready to shape for pan

Use both hands to squeeze the dough into a loaf shape, long enough for ends to touch inside ends of pan

Bread shaped to fit in 9x5 bread pan

Bread dough in pan for 2nd rise (approx. 45 minutes to an hour)

2nd rise complete, ready for baking

Baked bread cooling, after 15 minutes initial cooling in pan

Friday, July 1, 2011

Homemade Light Wheat Sandwich Bread

This bread was not supposed to be the next recipe I shared but it sort of happened out of necessity. When I stopped for groceries on my way home from work on Wednesday, the new fancy smanshy Whole Foods that is 2.7 miles from my house, did not have the wheat bread I normally buy for Bobby. They had about 10 different varieties of the brand but somehow not the one that I buy. And he doesn’t like a lot of “stuff” in/on his bread like oats, seeds, too many grains, so that pretty much eliminates 95 percent of the breads sold by Whole Foods. Just some simple wheat bread (or light wheat in the case of this homemade bread) and he’s good.

So, I decided that I’d make some homemade sandwich bread – a recipe I’ve already made several times and it is very simple and very good. One of the coolest things about this recipe is there are only 8 ingredients and that’s counting the water AND I can pronounce everyone of them. This is also another great use for a Kitchenaid stand mixer (I should be getting some sort of kick-back from them with as often as I mention that mixer). The dough comes together remarkably simply – most of the time for this recipe is just waiting for it to rise. So if you have 20 minutes this weekend, you can make this bread.

I've included quite a few pictures because I want to show all the steps and what the dough should look like. It's not difficult at all and goes very quickly - except for the waiting for the dough to proof part... but you can be doing other things so this is a great recipe for the multi-tasker, which I of course know nothing about...

*I weigh the ingredients when making bread recipes. I have a Taylor digital scale I think I bought at Tarjay that I use all of the time - so it's well worth having a scale for baking. I've put the weights in parentheses. *

Light Wheat Sandwich Bread

from The Bread Baker's Apprentice

2 ½ cups (11.25 oz.) bread flour

1 ½ cups (6.75 oz.) whole-wheat flour

1 ½ tablespoons (.75 oz.) granulated sugar or honey (I used sugar this time)

1 ½ teaspoons (.38 oz.) salt

3 tablespoons (1 oz.) powdered milk (I actually used goat milk powder because it’s what I had on hand)

1 ½ teaspoons (.17 oz.) instant yeast

2 tablespoons (1 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) water, at room temperature

1. Weigh and/or measure all dry ingredients and place in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until ingredients are well combined. Add the butter, water and honey (if you are using instead of sugar) and mix on low until the ingredients form a rough ball and all the bits of flour have come together. If needed, add a few dribbles of additional water to make sure all of the flour has come up off the bottom of the bowl.

2. Switch out the paddle attachment for the dough hook and mix/knead on medium for 6 minutes. The dough should become firm, supple and smooth – slightly tacky but not sticky. Add more flour, a little at time, if needed. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the bread to rise at room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the dough doubles in size.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl and press it by hand into a rectangle 3/4 inch thick, 6 inches wide, and 8 to 10 inches long. Roll it into a loaf by working from the short side of the dough, rolling up the length of the dough one section at a time, pinching the inside crease with each rotation. Pinch the final seam closed and place the loaf, seam side down, in a lightly oiled 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch bread pan. The ends of the loaf should touch the end of the pan to ensure an even rise. Mist the top with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap.

4. Proof (let rise) at room temperature for approximately 60 to 90 minutes or until the dough crests above the lip of the pan. Mine proofed in 60 minutes...

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with the oven rack in the middle shelf.

6. Place the bread pan on a sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue baking for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven. The finished loaf should register 190 degrees in the center, be golden brown on the top and sides, and sound hollow when thumped on the top.

7. When the bread is finished baking, remove it immediately from the loaf pan and cool it on a rack for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours (that's actually funny - you'll never make it to 2 hours), before slicing and serving.