The Weekly Loaf

This week's loaf has a slightly different shape, but it's still bread. I was perusing the King Arthur Baking website, looking for something new and different and I came upon this Braided Stromboli recipe. John recently ordered a stromboli when he had lunch with some friends. He brought home the leftovers, but it wasn't anything that impressed me. Gloppy is how I would describe the mix of ricotta and mozzarella that made up the filling. I thought I could make something better, and this recipe was my first attempt. 

Please ignore the wonkiness of the braiding (laying the dough over the filling). I rolled the dough out too thin and wasn't as careful folding the dough over as I could have been. I didn't make this right after I came upon the recipe because I had to find some semolina flour first, but I'm glad I finally did. Many of the comments on the recipe raved about how nice the dough was to handle, and I agree. I might try this dough the next time I make pizza. 

The recipe called for half a pound of thinly sliced provolone and one quarter pound of salami. I used a bit more of each, and that was okay, but the bottom was a bit greasy. The next time I might try prosciutto and mozzarella to reduce the greasiness, or maybe sausage, mushrooms, and mozzarella. I might even try spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella (except John would probably wonder if I forgot the meat). 

I'm always looking for dinner recipes that are easy and taste good. This one fit the bill and I hope I can make it taste and look a bit better the next time I make it. Here's hoping that all your dinners this week are delicious!

The Weekly Loaf

My current weekly loaf came about because of our weather report. On Saturday we had snow and freezing rain, which then turned to rain on Sunday. The doomsday weatherman was predicting 20-40 mph winds with 60 mph gusts on Sunday night into Monday. Since our electricity tends to go out even if there are gentle breezes, I decided I better make some dinner early on Sunday while I still had a stove that worked. 

First up was a pot of sausage corn chowder. I always think soup needs bread to go with it, so I ended up making rosemary bread. 

It's really just a white bread with rosemary added to the dough but it smelled good and I thought it might taste okay, too. I used this recipe for guidance. 

Just make sure you grease your pan completely and don't leave any spots ungreased where the bread might stick and tear. 

I will be making another Honey Oat Pain de Mie in my Pullman pan later today, and I will make sure to grease that pan completely. We're visiting Ryan tomorrow and I'd like to take him a decent loaf of bread, one without any tears in the side. 

I hope your Monday is off to a good start and the rest of your week improves as we head towards Friday!

The Weekly Loaf

I've made white sandwich bread, cinnamon bread and honey-oat bread. This week it was cinnamon raisin bread, and it turned out to be almost perfect (even if I do say so myself). 

A little bit of the cinnamon-sugar-raisin filling leaked out at the end, but that was just a preview of the deliciousness within.

 

I was happy to see the lovely tight swirl of cinnamon, sugar, and raisins with very few gaps. I think I had three pieces of this loaf and someone else who lives here gobbled up the rest. He has asked several times when I'm making more, but I feel like moving on to something else, like banana bread, blueberry bread, or maybe banana blueberry bread. 

I hope your weekend includes several things that taste delicious!

The Weekly Loaf

I know I said I was going to bake cinnamon raisin bread for my next loaf, but I had made oatmeal for breakfast and since the container was still on the counter, I decided to make Honey-Oat Pain de Mie instead. 

This bread was wonderful, just slightly sweet and nutty. John had to bemoan the lack of cinnamon, but I have eaten this plain, toasted, spread with bit of jam, and used it for a turkey sandwich. I have yet to find a way that this bread is not absolutely delicious. If you happen to be making it for a 13" pullman pan, don't miss the note at the bottom of the recipe about doubling all the ingredients except the yeast. As it's written, this recipe would be ideal for baking in a regular 9x5 loaf pan. Baking bread and having fresh-baked bread to eat is making this winter more tolerable for me!

The Weekly Loaf

Earlier this week I posted about the pullman pan I had redicovered in my kitchen cupboard, and wondered how cinnamon swirl bread would work. This is how:

Paul Hollywood might have some less than flattering things to say about this loaf, but I don't think he's stopping by. I rolled the dough tightly and got a good swirl, but there are still a few gaps between the cinnamon-sugar and the dough. But you know what might help fill those gaps nicely? Raisins! I didn't have any when I baked this bread, but I'll make sure there are some in the pantry before I bake next week. 

 

 

In the meantime I'm starting my morning wonderfully with a couple of pieces of toasted cinnamon swirl bread and a steaming mug of chai. Life is pretty good when you've baked bread!

Look What I Found!

And look what I made with it!

I usually go to the grocery store once a week, but it's a chore I really dislike. With several freezers full of vegetables and venison, I honestly don't need much besides bread, milk, eggs, and a few other miscellaneous items. I had put off shopping for several days when it was raining, but when I had finally decided to go, all I really needed on my list was bread. I decided that I would much rather bake bread than shop for it, so I looked through all of my kitchen cupboards for something that I hoped was still there and that I hadn't gotten rid of in some ill-advised cleaning out.

And look what I found - my pullman pan! It's a lidded loaf pan that minimizes crust and makes it possible to bake nice square sandwich bread or pain de mie (if you're fancy but I'm not). I had lusted after this pan for several years and finally broke down and bought it probably 15 years ago or so. I baked with it quite a bit, but after the kids moved out, I barely used it at all. But I was glad to find it and bake a stellar loaf of sandwich bread. That was much more satisfying than going to the grocery store. 

 

 

 Justin and John's brother were here over the weekend to do "men things" with John so I used  up quite a bit of the loaf to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. It also makes great toast.  I think it would make delicious french toast and I'd like to make cinnamon raisin swirl bread with the it so I won't have that gap between the filling and the bread that you sometimes get in swirl breads. 

My pan came from King Arthur Flour and I originally purchased the 13" one. They also make a 9" one that might be better suited to our two-person household. I'm going to think about it for a while, but that 9" pan might be my Christmas/New Year/just because present to myself.