soup? yes. bread, just barely.

While I was making two soups today (Butternut squash/apple soup from my wedding, and Bermuda fish chowder from last years anniversary cruise), I also tried to pull off two loaves of bread. I must say I did (I think I did) multi-task fairly well, (was never frantic or rushed) getting all my vegetables prepped while the squash roasted and managed to use no more than 3 burners at a time (and keep the sink somewhat manageable).

The bread is my new favorite - the multigrain bread recipe from Cooks Illustrated*, and since last fall, I started making more wholesome variations to it, inspired in part by the Tomato Basil bread at Paneras, I added some tomato juice to replace the water. This was my favorite sandwich bread. Also fantastic under a poached egg. Increasing the juice content, the following three have cooked up well, but called for ever increasing amounts of flour. Today I decided to forgo all the additional flour and just see what happened…. Have you ever seen a loaf rise up nicely, with a nice crisp top, (cooked to over 190 degrees) and have a sticky bottom and sides?

It’s possible I was distracted and missed a step, perhaps I should have decided to “see what happened” if I just stuck to the recipe (with minor substitiutions) and damned the consequences. The dough was pretty much like beer bread, perhaps stickier, and thought it would cook up fine, which it mostly did. Tastes great. but must be toasted. Good for sandwiches it is not.

The recipe is essentially this:

1 1/2 cups of whole grain cereal mix, with boiling water added (2.5 cups), left to “cook” until the temp comes down under 100 degrees (and won’t kill the yeast). A little honey or maple syrup is added, butter and yeast. Mixed in with about 5 cups of flour. let it rest, knead, rise twice, divide it into 2 pans and proof until doubled in size. then Bake until 200, rest (and try not to devour before it cools down to room temp).

At the suggestion of our Food TV Patron Saint Alton Brown, who advised 190 degrees (because of carry over) I’ve been shooting for that mark, as 200+ will yield a dry, if not hard loaf. At times I’ve used oatmeal in place of whole grain cereal, and that (and/or), coupled with the tomato juice (or something akin to V8) seems to come out stickier than with water. I’ve tried reducing the liquid, but save for the first, sparing addition of vegetable juice cocktail (the organic medly from Whole Foods), I’ve had such a sticky dough and added loads of flour.

My idea was to slip in a little bit of vegetables and nutrition without doubling up on the carbs. I might as well make sandwiches out of pumpkin bread - or the apple bread I made the day before (trading in applesauce for the canned pumpkin - mmm… makes good french toast too!)

If I wasn’t so far behind on all the food blogs I’ve bookmarked, perhaps my little ones suggestion of adding chocolate chips wouldn’t have seemed off the mark.

aha - in trying to put in a couple links…. I see my initial post of this recipe last january tells my I was a bit off with the temperatures I used - as stated above. That may explain the sticky loaf out of the oven… but what about the extra sticky dough going in. That I still question. I guess I haven’t come very far since this attempt.

Any thoughts?

 

Pumpkin Bread (with beer)

That is pumpkin bread with beer… stay tuned for pumpkin beer bread, and pumpkin bread with pumpkin beer… (just need several weeks to get the goods for, and to brew up the pumpkin lager (or porter… still haven’t decided!)

Is there such thing as too much beer? There sure can be if you’re brewing it up gallons at a time, and have to wait several weeks to find out if it was even worth it. (Meanwhile, while your waiting to drink it, you brew more…)

I may have mentioned that a few years back, (OK several years - before my little one was born - who’s coming up on her 6th Christmas) my wife gave me the Mr. Beer Kit, along with several different recipes to try. Basically malted grains and hops in a can - open, heat, add sugar & yeast, wait, bottle, wait, enjoy. Today I’ve finally worked through all the (old) kits.

They had a warning on them to use by summer 04, but I went ahead and tried anyhow. I could either throw them away before or after I found out if they were any good - nothing to lose but time if I tried, right? I figure that molasses, etc… doesn’t really go bad, so unopened cans of malted anything should last pretty much indefinitely. Though, I’ll still be making batches from fresh kits here on out.

As long as the fermented beer isn’t sweet or vinegary before I bottle, I should have something palatable… though I may need to kick it into high gear - as far as coming up with more recipes involving beer.

So far, most have been adequate, and some have been outstanding. Even the adequate ones were better than most of what I’d tend to get out at a bar or restaurant. But I’ve got to say, I haven’t felt the need to buy much beer - as I’ve got quite a bit - though sometimes lacking in selection.

Some have been fine, once they’ve reached the proper levels of carbonation - some have improved over time, others have changed - neither for the better or worse, just changes. The Apple Ale has proved the exception. It’s devolved a bit, once light and drinkable with food, now it’s tolerable. It’s darkened. Got a stonger taste to it. Not altogether bad, just different. Perhaps it finally became what it was meant to be, but not exactly as described. I guess I just liked it a little premature. This has long been earmarked for cooking with anyway, and today (with a cool enough kitchen) it finally got it’s chance to redeem itself.

My mothers recipe - given to her from a friend, currently a baker of wedding cakes and such - has been the recipe I’ve grown up on. I’ve looked online for others, to see how I could better incorporate the beer without any negative effect (and to also use up at least a bottle per loaf) no luck there, so I just went back to basics and crossed my fingers.

The verdict - Redemption! I’m going to be making a heck of a lot of pumpkin bread. Hopefully I don’t get sick of it! Having already eaten half a loaf before it cooled.

This recipe yields 3 loaves (I must have big pans, because mine have always come out short) So any extra leavening from the beer wouldn’t be a bad thing. It was in fact, just the ticket.

• 4 Cups Flour
• 3 Cups Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Cinnamon (heaping)
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Allspice or Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/2 tsp Cloves
• 1 Cup finely chopped nuts (nuts are always optional with kids in the house…)*

Mix above in bowl, add wet in well in center:

• 1 can pumpkin or squash puree
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 Cups Cold Water (Homebrewed Dutch Apple Ale, or any appropriate Beer you have on hand)
• 1 cup oil (canola, crisco..) I used grapeseed - use what you’ve got (but not olive oil)

Mix, pour into greased and floured pans, split evenly among 3 pans.  1/2 to 2/3rds full

bake at 350 for 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. Or as Gramma says, when you can smell it, it’s done.

*come to think of it, I’ve typically left out nuts in recipes (at least I used to, so taking out an entire cup full of an ingredient may have been why my loaves were shorter than moms. - but I still think it’s the pans. 

Before the cable company came and took our channels away - no more Food Network ;(  (don’t really care about the rest), I remember Alton Brown talking about was using stocks or juice instead of water - they bring more flavor to the party - so perhaps there are lots more simple recipes I can just work beer into… Soups, sauces, salad dressings… well, maybe not.

While in France I did learn how to make crepes using beer instead of milk - though that was just 1/2 a can per batch. still have 4+ quarts of Apple Ale left to use up, and in the coming weeks I’ll have 7 Quarts (each) of a Higher Alcohol Red Ale, and a similarly made, high alcohol Belgian Witbier to cook with, and/or drink.

I’ll welcome any thoughts and suggestions… maybe this will end up turning into “the cooking with beer blog”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

 

an artful science…

but it’s still a science.

I seem to have this habit of blogging some food creations as I’m making them (what else does one do while bread is rising, proofing and then eventually baking?). I think I got a little cocky with my beer bread last time, not being so precise with the measurements, (scoop and sweep) and taking the bread out a little too soon. (doughy in the middle, and while edible, not really sandwich worthy).

Granted I was making three loaves of bread at the same time, a double batch of a multigrain bread I’m trying to perfect (using vegetable juice instead of water) to up the healthieness a bit. Those came out just fine thank-you, but I’m still not having consistent results. The dough is just too sticky, so I’ll add more flour (can take an awful lot before things seem “right.” Not that I always know what “right” is.

I’ve done a little homework, and had some great comments which have proven helpful. However, today I was trying to juggle dinner and bread at the same time, and tried to forgo adding all that extra flour, perhaps I was just rushing things. I mean afterall, the beer bread I’ve made is more like batter than dough, and usually comes out great.

So tonight, trying to heed my lessons I learned last time (and after being tired of the two supermarket loaves I’ve had to eat - the first since new years) I tried sticking more closely to the original recipe. Once the dough had doubled in size, it plopped down to something more akin to pizza dough. I’m currently expecting two pink bricks to come out of the oven. (See here I go doing it again… blogging about something not done yet… everthing might turn out great. I’m just not putting my money down on that outcome.)

The new site A year in bread couldn’t have come at a better time. Hopefully, with a little more prodding, and a lot more practice. I can be a much better bread baker.

The past two weeks have shown me that even my mediocre attempts are much more tasty than supermarket fare. My poached egg on toast this morning was nearly unfit to serve!

— added 3/27/07 —

Yes my last batch of bread turned out to be a pair of orange/pink bricks…. but tasty ones at that.