The name pompe à l’huile is an indication of how this Provençal specialty is made: dough pumped full of oil. Might as well be proactive and drown the bread in extra-virgin olive oil ahead of time if you’re going to do it anyway.
Saveur describes it as a cross between a focaccia, because it is shaped [...]
I have a new bread baking gadget and its name is Pullman, a right-angled pan used for shaping rectangular loaves that would make your Geometry teacher proud. You may also know Pullman-style loaves as pain de mie, French for “bread of crumb,” because loaves baked with the removable sliding cover prevents a stiff crust from [...]
View Vollkornbrot - German Whole Rye Sourdough Recipe »
Each movement of the serrated knife shoots sesame seeds in all directions, but it’s a minor annoyance that is easily justified. Baking releases the fragrance of the sesame seeds onto the crust and makes a noticeable difference. I should’ve done the same thing with the second loaf.
Inside, the flaxseed aroma is more subtle but thoroughly [...]
UPDATE: We have a winner! Comment #78 belongs to Nancy. Congratulations and thanks to everyone for participating!
I started this blog a year ago. The first post was about Peter Reinhart’s French Bread from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. 60 bread-related posts later, my hands are supple from kneading all that dough but the list of recipes [...]
There are several bread-centric blog events and groups that I try to keep up with:
Bread Baking Day (monthly), which I even hosted once
Bread Baking Babes (monthly)
Bake Your Own Bread (biweekly)
Yeastspotting (weekly)
The newest addition to my list is the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge (weekly), where participants bake through Peter Reinhart’s unofficial bible for the beginning bread [...]
View Anadama Recipe - Bread with Cornmeal and Molasses »
Injera, an Ethiopian staple traditionally made with teff flour, is a spongy flatbread made with a thin sourdough batter. Served in a communal place setting, assertively spiced sauces and stews are ladled on overlapping rounds and pieces are torn off to scoop up the chunkier bits. Additional injera may also be neatly folded into quarters [...]
View Injera Recipe - Ethiopian Sourdough Flatbread »
If, in a cheese bread recipe, you were told to deeply cut into the proofed dough to allow the cheese to ooze out while baking, wouldn’t you be interested in seeing what happens? The potential for a crusty-smoky mess in the oven is high, but don’t let that keep you from trying this recipe out.
The [...]
English hot cross buns are scented with allspice and baked with dried currants and candied citrus peel. The buns are traditionally enjoyed for breakfast on Good Friday, but that doesn’t keep me from baking these all year round. It’s ready in about three hours so it’s quick as far as yeast rolls go.
The dough is [...]
A Croque Madame is a grilled cheese and smoked ham sandwich topped with a sunny side up egg. I used Black Forest ham, Gruyère cheese, and whole wheat sourdough bread because I want to be known as That Guy who makes a mean sandwich.
Within minutes, this mini-sandwich was reduced to traces of errant crumbs and [...]
This whole wheat sourdough recipe takes about 3 days from refreshing your starter to baking. It takes that long because the shaped loaves are refrigerated and allowed to rise slowly for about 16 hours. The dough fully develops its flavor and sourness during this time.
My fridge keeps a temperature of 40°F so adjust the final [...]
Do you notice how these pane francese photos seem to be taken at a peculiar angle? How they show most of the loaf surface area but not quite the entire picture? There’s a reason for that. The hidden cropped areas is where the bread exploded like bats out of a cave.
The original recipe specifically advises [...]
Mushroom toasts are a great way to use up stale bread. It could also serve as a bold top half for your version of The World’s Greatest Sandwich or as a worthy excuse to fire up your George Foreman grill or panini press*.
I don’t really care for any of that, though.
I like making these because [...]
These loaves of hazelnut and fig bread are loaded in every sense, with such senses being texture and nutrition, for starters. You’d be correct in thinking that it will smell wonderful as it bakes. Even as it rises, the raw dough is already redolent with the aroma of fennel seeds, fresh rosemary, and roasted hazelnuts.
The [...]
This semolina cornbread recipe calls for equal parts cornmeal, semolina flour, and soft wheat flour. It’s much like your typical buttermilk cornbread that bakes up moist, crumbly, and slightly gritty.
Naturally golden coarse semolina flour gives cornbread a creamier yellow crumb and nuttier finish than using only cornmeal and wheat flour. I’m not Mr. Sensitive Palate [...]
With all of the Irish pubs in Chicago and the consequent massive amounts of Guinness and Jameson consumed, I should be some sort of leading expert on Irish food by now. The fact is, I’ve never had soda bread in the traditional sense before.
The base recipe is probably similar, but the brown bread served with [...]
This month’s Bread Baking Day brings us starch-on-starch action by way of potatoes on pizza. If you cook Italian food every once in a while, you probably already have potatoes, rosemary, onions, and extra virgin olive oil ready to go.
There’s just one caveat — you’ll need an active liquid wild yeast starter for the biga [...]
This five-grain walnut bread marks a year of bread baking with others equally passionate about the craft. Who knew that people actually took time to master a recipe, take photos, and share knowledge with like-minded folks? I’m now convinced that you can find anything on the interwebs.
What started off as an occasional substitution for rice [...]
The dark blistered crust pockmarked with fissures gives pain à l’ancienne a look some might call rustic, a polite way of describing misshapen food. Crudely shaped through stretching, these baguettes have thicker ends and seem unrefined at first glance.
What pain à l’ancienne lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in taste. If you [...]
We’re all about baking and cooking from scratch here. Homemade serving vessels might be taking things a bit too far, though. Gently nestling flattened pieces of dough on upturned bowls seems so… homely. I feel like scrapbooking or knitting a sweater after making bread soup bowls.
These are always fun to have on hand whenever soups [...]
Edam cheese is essential for making ensaimada. Filipinos know it best as queso de bola, bowling balls of cheesiness covered in a protective shell of red wax. These big-as-your-head cheese balls always made our dinner table during christmastime. We have this tradition of rounding up thirteen different types of spherical fruits to symbolize prosperity for [...]
View Ensaimada Recipe - Filipino Cheese Brioche »
Sweet and fragrant cinnamon raisin walnut bread is a breakfast option worth waking up for. With all of the fruits and toasted nuts in the loaf, a generous slice is satisfying enough on its own. The center is filled with molten cinnamon sugar but you can leave it out if you prefer a less sweet [...]
View Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread - 100% Whole Wheat Recipe »
This stollen is one of many treats lovingly inflicted upon kith and kin for Christmas, alongside boatloads of cookies and chocolate. If my number crunching is correct, at a going rate of 3500 calories per pound, my beat-up oven is responsible for a metric ton of holiday season weight gain. I’m just glad that no [...]
View Dan Lepard's Extra Moist Stollen Recipe »
Heavy on cranberries and walnuts, bejeweled strips of dough barely held itself together as I tried to make a braid out of it. It didn’t seem like the freshly kneaded ball could take the large amount of dried fruits and nuts, but sure enough, everything came together as advertised after a few folds.
As you can [...]
Green tea and red rice add more than color and an East Asian twist to this soft bread loaf. Lightly enriched with sugar, butter, and an egg yolk, the subtle tastes of both ingredients pull through along with their many nutritional benefits.
The health benefits of green tea are well-documented, but red rice may be a [...]
Do you have any recipes that use dark rye flour? A 25-pound bag from Bob’s Red Mill is taking up valuable freezer space for manly essentials such as White Castles and Eggo, so any suggestions would be well appreciated.
Buying a sack of dark rye seemed like a good idea considering that shipping costs were split [...]
This loaf makes great toast because it’s not only crackly on the outside, but also has crunchy bits on the inside. In this yeast-raised cornbread recipe from Jeffrey Hamelman, fine cornmeal is added to a basic white wheat dough for texture and that freshly made tortilla smell.
I couldn’t help but think of popcorn so I [...]
Is that 22-ounce steak dinner from last night bogging you down? Suffering from a roughage-deficient diet? Move mountains with this high-fiber variation on the 100% whole wheat sandwich bread. Packed with flaxseeds and oat bran, this bread recipe provides the benefits of both soluble and insoluble fiber without the unpleasant side effects of pumpernickel.
If it’s [...]
This blueberry and cranberry loaf is based on a recipe for “election day bread,” which originally had raisins, candied citrus, and spices. Considering its name, doesn’t it make more sense studded with reds and blues?
But since blueberries are in season during the warmer months and cranberries during the cooler months, this combination doesn’t make sense [...]
Braided loaves intimidate me. Even more intimidating is this double-decker challah recipe from Sara, but it turns out to be a pleasure to work with. It’s an excellent introduction to an essential decorative bread shaping technique shared across many cultures.
I guess it’s time to revisit all of the recipes for braided breads that I overlooked [...]
Since fall is in full swing and turning my place into a sauna is starting to make sense, we continue with more bread baking. Our most recent exploit had the oven cranked up at maximum temperature but today’s featured recipe bakes at a balmy 460ºF with steam. Lots of steam. So much steam that I [...]
View Sonnenblumenbrot - German Sunflower Seed Bread Recipe »
This is, without a doubt, the best recipe for pizza dough I’ve ever tried. Chilled flour, ice-cold water, salt, and a small amount of yeast are mixed together and immediately refrigerated in this unique method that draws out the complex flavors locked inside the flour. This delayed fermentation process is arguably the most important, and [...]
View Pizza Napoletana Margherita - Neapolitan-Style Pizza Recipe »
If you happen to have some leftover pumpkin puree, chances are, you’ve already made something sweet or otherwise indulgent. Using whole wheat flour and just enough enrichments to make a firm batter, this pumpkin bread adds some much needed balance and nutritional value to the pumpkin-centric diet.
You could, of course, forget about counting calories, toast [...]
This 100% whole wheat loaf is my idea of the perfect homemade bread. The ingredient list is fairly short and calls for only a few kitchen staples in addition to the requisite whole wheat flour, salt, water, and yeast. Compared to white flour loaves, whole grain breads are also undoubtedly the healthier choice, but its [...]
View Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe - 100% Whole Grain »
Pan de leche is a Filipino sweet bread that has many regional variations. As far as I know, any yeasted bread baked with milk and sugar can be labeled pan de leche, but I have a very specific idea of what it is supposed to be like. It will be dense and feel heavy for [...]
View Pan de Leche - Filipino Sweet Bread Rolls Recipe »
Pumpkin puree and its familiar spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger are kneaded into buttery dough in this seasonal take on the classic brioche. This recipe makes so much sense to me – winter squashes simply roasted with butter is always comforting when in season . These soft yellow puffs topped with crunchy [...]
View Pumpkin Spice Brioche Recipe »
In this, our next installment of watch the Filipino cook and bake things he can’t even pronounce, we visit the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, home of fine cows, gallant horses, and the regional specialty bread called sûkerbôlle. Based on an old Frisian cookbook, this sugar bread loaf is lightly scented with cinnamon and [...]
View Sûkerbôlle / Suikerbrood - Frisian Sugar Bread Recipe »
Pane Francese is the bastard lovechild of the baguette and the ciabatta, melding the best qualities of each iconic bread into rustic loaves. Shaped into long sticks like its French archetype, the crust-to-crumb ratio is maximized, making it a great accompaniment to rich soups and stews. The high hydration characteristic of the ciabatta, at 76% [...]
View Pane Francese Recipe - The Italian take on French Bread »
I affectionately call lavash “spice rack velcro,” or a quick and easy way to make a small dent in my growing stockpile of spices. My habit of getting carried away and buying ridiculous amounts of spices in bulk has gotten worse. I don’t even know what I have in my kitchen anymore, but whenever I [...]
View Lavash - Armenian Flatbread Recipe »
No, I didn’t confuse my (non-existent) French and Italian. This formula for Italian ciabatta uses French terminology because it’s from Eric Kayser, well-renowned in Paris for his breads and pastries. In a city saturated with driven artisans dedicated to their craft, Maison Kayser still manages to consistently rank high among the best Parisian bakeries.
Even more [...]
This recipe for sumac-dusted roast chicken is not only easy to prepare, but is also an excellent introduction to the spice called sumac, and by extension, the charming simplicity of Lebanese cookery. The purple-maroon spice is used extensively in this cuisine; canisters of ground sumac take the place of ground pepper in most Lebanese restaurants [...]
View Sumac Chicken Recipe - Roasted over Onions and Pita Bread »
When trying out a new recipe, do you sometimes get the feeling that it’s just not going to work? Finding out towards the end of cooking can be frustrating but luckily, the warning signs for this country-style whole wheat pita bread were obvious early in the process. While kneading by hand, the dough basically refused [...]
View Country-Style Whole Wheat Pita recipe »
First of all, the bad news: there will be no Bread Baking Day in September and October. What’s to keep our ovens fired up now that the mercury is dropping, you may ask? The good news is it’s almost time for world’s largest virtual breadbasket, the 3rd annual World Bread Day, to be hosted in [...]
View Bread Baking Day 13: 100% Whole Grains Roundup »
I grinned like an idiot as I lifted the dark brown loaves from the charred baking stone with bare hands. The soft crust smiled back with its wide open slashes, a sight that every bread maker hopes for upon opening the oven door. It didn’t matter that my calloused fingertips started to burn or that [...]
View Pane al Cioccolato - Italian Chocolate Bread recipe »
I previously mentioned the combination of sesame and flax seeds in the form of unleavened honey-glazed crackers. I always keep sacks of sesame and flax on hand to fuel the addiction to the sweet and salty crisps but this hearty leavened version is showing up more frequently in my daily weekly baking schedule.
The baking temperature [...]
The shape of a bread is probably the best indicator of its provenance and ingredients, short of having the recipe in hand. Shaped like a stick and scored decoratively? Probably a French baguette with nothing more than flour, salt, water, and yeast. Flat, wide, and heavily floured? Probably an Italian ciabatta, hydrated much more than [...]
View Pan Gallego de Centeno - Galician Rye Bread recipe »
Chicago is home to several vibrant Latino neighborhoods, some predominantly of Mexican heritage. It follows that there is hardly any shortage of sources for Mexican ingredients. There are even several tortillerias open to the public that produce freshly made tortillas by the truckload and buying from these factories is easily the best option — the [...]
View Homemade Corn Tortillas using Masa Harina recipe »
The minute just prior to loading a scorching 500 degree oven with delicate shaped baguettes is a case study in coordination and multitasking. You need to move quickly in a controlled manner — proofed baguettes can easily deflate if handled roughly and should be baked immediately to maintain its cylindrical shape. Several things should also [...]
View Eric Kayser's Baguettes Monge Recipe »
The American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) defines whole grains as such:
Whole grains shall consist of the intact, ground, cracked or flaked caryopsis, whose principal anatomical components – the starchy endosperm, germ and bran – are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact caryopsis.
I don’t know about you, but my [...]
This is the 100% whole grain version of Italian panmarino, or rosemary potato loaf, my favorite bread for dipping in olive oil. Both formulas are adapted from Peter Reinhart, the person responsible for tearing this Asian away from his daily rice-and-noodles-as-staple habit. In my kitchen, one can find flour-crusted bannetons, linen couches, and enough flour [...]
View Whole Grain Rosemary Potato Bread recipe »
This is my bread of choice for the most god-awful stinky cheeses I can get my hands on. It’s probably not a traditional use for it but it works for me. This rough and crispy flatbread is perfect for slathering with the funkiest of room temperature washed rind cheeses. I haven’t tried the stinkiest cheese [...]
View Hapanleipä - Finnish Sour Rye Bread formula »
Having good bread and olive oil is always a comforting way to start a meal. This Italian loaf baked with rosemary and mashed potatoes is my idea of the perfect dipping bread. Each of the three elements, the bread itself, the rosemary, and the potatoes, have a natural affinity with olive oil. Combining everything in [...]
View Rosemary Potato Bread recipe »
What can you do to make buttery brioche buns better? Why, soak it in vanilla-infused cream and milk, of course. Adding fresh antioxidant-rich blueberries isn’t such a bad idea as well, mainly so you can convince yourself that the resulting mess of creamy goodness is somewhat healthy.
Since this is based on a Daniel Boulud recipe, [...]
It’s easy to dismiss these seeded crackers as health food based on the name alone, but unlike the bricks of sawdust available at your local GNC, these actually taste great. Coarsely ground sunflower seeds, flaxseed meal, and sesame seeds are slightly sweetened with honey to create crispy morsels that put any off-the-shelf cracker to shame.
It’s [...]
Shaped into petites brioches à tête, these minty balls of eggs and butter are perfectly portioned into small rolls meant to be savored in moderation. Unless you’re French, that is, in which case you’re likely immune to the unsavory side effects of rich foods.
High red wine consumption is supposedly the main factor behind the French [...]
This dark onion rye bread is, in a word, substantial. It is a hearty round loaf enriched with molasses, honey, and onions. Both the crust and crumb have varying degrees of pleasant chewiness that I find really enjoyable with cheese.
I was a bit apprehensive with taking on this month’s formula for Bread Baking Babes knowing [...]
As much as I don’t mind making breads that take at least two days to complete, sometimes a freshly baked batch of yeasty goodness just has to come out of the oven right quick. Using pre-ferments and soakers are just two of many techniques for making bread with fully-developed flavor but, uh, they had to [...]
View Gerhard Ströck's Curry Roll recipe »
Red Hen Baking Company’s “Sprouternickel” is a sourdough whole grain rye loaf studded with sprouted rye berries, sprouted spelt berries, and sunflower seeds. My formula is based on the ingredients listed in Red Hen Baking’s Bread Varieties page while the ingredient proportions and baking times for this first attempt are based on Dan Leader’s Vollkornbrot [...]
View Red Hen Baking's Sprouternickel Clone recipe »
This is pumpernickel in the American tradition where a little help from wheat flour (for structure) and molasses (for color) are added to coarsely ground rye flour. The dark color characteristic of German pumpernickel breads is achieved through the Maillard reaction where loaves are cooked low and slow for 16 to 24 hours. This baking [...]
View Pumpernickel Bagel recipe »
Whole grain anadama bread is my first choice when I have a need for hearty sandwich loaves. It has an interesting combination of dense chewiness and texture from the addition of cornmeal. The aroma and richness that it gets from molasses keeps it from taking a backseat even with the richest of sandwich fillings. The [...]
View Whole Grain Anadama Bread recipe »
Making quick work of huge disks of sourdough is easy with this well-loved Catalonian procedure for seasoning bread with garlic, tomato, and olive oil. There are hordes of fanatical pa amb tomàquet devotees just about everywhere, so I would think twice about referring to this as Spanish bruschetta.
View Pa Amb Tomàquet - Catalan Bread with Tomato recipe »
Pain Poilâne is a naturally fermented French country bread that weighs in at a hefty two kilograms. The flour used for the bread is high extraction gray flour, containing some but not all of the wheat bran. High extraction flour is not likely to be available at your local grocery store but Peter Reinhart suggests [...]
View Poilâne-Style High Extraction Miche recipe »
Pan de Sal with a pan-fried quail egg
The local bakery was a two mile bike ride from my house in the Philippines. Shortly after the first mile, the humid weather thickens the aroma of freshly baked pan de sal that even on an empty stomach, I am able to sprint quickly up the hill where [...]
View Pan de Sal - Filipino Salted Bread Rolls formula »
When I first got interested in making bread, I found baguettes to be the most intimidating. How can I get irregular holes in the crumb? How can I get regularly spaced slash patterns? How can I get a golden crackly crust?
It took more than a few tries to make passable baguettes with this recipe from [...]
