Light Brioche Revisited

In June I discovered a wonderful bread recipe on the blog of Lucie Madeleine and made these hamburger buns. I have made the recipe several times since, to the delight of my family, and most recently for a luncheon for church. This time I made petite rolls, and I was very pleased with the results.

Between rubbing butter and flour together with your fingers and being careful not to add too much flour, this dough is not the easiest to handle; but the reward of following the instructions is a deliciously light and tender roll.

Light Brioche Buns

After a cooking friend supplied a link to Lucie Madeleine's blog, I found a recipe for these homemade brioche buns and tried them for our turkey burgers this past weekend. They were deliciously light with just enough sweet to complement the burgers. I will be making more of these for a family get-together this coming weekend!

Honey Oat Rolls - My New Favorite!

I recently became a fan of the blog Salad in a Jar and have been tempted by many of the recipes I've found there. One in particular caught my eye, Honey Oatmeal Dinner Rolls, and I decided they would be perfect for a church dinner for sixty this past Sunday. I upped the ingredients to accommodate the larger quantity, and I only made one substitution, (based on my fondness for these Soft Yogurt Rolls from the blog of What A Dish!) and that was yogurt for the liquid.

The aroma of these rolls is intoxicating, the crust has just a light crunch, the interior is pillow soft and perfect for a pat of butter, and the flavor is slightly sweet with the satisfying taste of oats. I think they are my new favorite! Please look at Paula's beautiful photos of the rolls, as she sprinkled oatmeal on the tops of hers, which makes for a gorgeous presentation, and she fashioned them into much more attractive shapes!

I love that Paula is not afraid to use shortening in her recipes. There are many bloggers out there that have Fear of Shortening, and although I understand their health concerns, I feel that shortening has received quite the bad rap! I prefer shortening in my pie crusts; I have tried substituting butter, and when I do my crust lacks flakiness and lightness. Although I love the rich aroma and deep flavor that butter imparts, I occasionally combine it with shortening in cake recipes for the fluffiness (how's that for a technical term?) and moistness that shortening brings to the final product. And I recently used margarine combined with shortening (I can hear your collective gasps of horror) for a cake, because it was an old recipe from my childhood, and I wanted that old-fashioned taste. I received more compliments on that cake than any I've made in months!

(Climbing down from my soapbox) feel free to substitute butter for the one tablespoon of shortening in the following recipe.

Honey Oat Rolls
Adapted from Salad in a Jar
Makes 16

1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup yogurt, room temperature
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon shortening
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup quick oats

Melt together butter and shortening, set aside to cool slightly. Place warm water and honey in bowl of stand mixer; add yeast and let sit for a few minutes. Add room temperature yogurt and melted butter/shortening mixture. While mixing on low speed, add egg. Whisk together salt, flour, and oats; add to mixture in bowl and mix until well blended. Using dough hook, knead mixture for about 3-5 minutes, only adding flour if mixture looks too wet. Place in greased bowl and let rise until doubled.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and divide evenly into preferred roll shapes. (I had to generously flour my hands, because the dough was slightly wet. Let rise until nearly double.) Preheat oven to 350 (I baked at 375) and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes, or until golden.

Whole Grains Bread

I recently purchased Pompanoosuc Porridge Mix, a wonderful concoction of organic steel cut oats, white whole wheat bulgur, and flax seed, from King Arthur Flour. The hot cereal is delicious (and I feel so healthy eating it), but the bonus is the bread recipe on the back of the package. The cooked grains in the dough yield a tender, moist, chewy, crisp-crusted bread.

Although this bread could be titled Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread, I decided to simply call it Whole Grains Bread.





Whole Grains Bread
adapted from King Arthur Flour's Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread recipe
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1-1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 cup cooked Pompanoosuc Porridge (could substitute cooked steel cut oats or other cooked cereal)
1 cups whole wheat flour
2-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
2-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Mix all ingredients until a smooth, soft dough is formed. Knead a few minutes on a lightly floured surface. Let rise in a lightly oiled bowl until doubled, approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down, place on a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly. Form into desired shapes (I made a small dinner loaf and a few sandwich rolls) and let rise for one hour, or until slightly less than doubled. Slash top of loaf and bake in preheated 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes for one large loaf. (I elected to raise the temperature to 400 degrees for 30 minutes for my smaller loaf and sandwich rolls). Remove and cool on wire rack.

POM Wonderful Yogurt Rolls

Do those rolls look just a tiny bit purple? There is a reason for that.

Recently I was offered a case of 100% pomegranate juice from Janny at POM Wonderful. Finding a case of those cute little bottles on my doorstep was a little like Christmas for me!



POM juice can stand alone as a nutritious and attractive drink, nothing added or needed, with an amazing number of health benefits.

Of all the creative uses for POM juice--savory marinades, rich glazes, refreshing drinks--my preoccupation with carbs led me to try the juice in one of my favorite roll recipes.
I adapted the recipe for Soft Yogurt Rolls from Baking Bites. My changes were to substitute 1/4 cup POM juice for part of the warm water, add an egg white instead of the oil, use 3 cups of flour, use 1/2 cup of yogurt instead of a full cup, and add about a teaspoon of minced rosemary. After baking, I lightly brushed the tops with garlic butter.


Besides the funky purple hue, the POM juice added a nice earthy element to the flavor and paired perfectly with the rosemary.

Old-Fashioned Cinnamon Rolls

All of my baking life, I have tried to emulate my Grandmother's cinnamon rolls. Even though she died when I was 9, long before I was smart enough to ask her for the recipe, the look, smell, and taste of those rolls is still a vivid memory. After many, many pans of roll attempts (and pounds of weight), I have arrived at a method that comes close to Granny's perfection. These old-fashioned cinnamon rolls are my most requested rolls, and I bake them jumbo-style for the coffeeshop on a weekly basis.

My favorite sweet roll recipe, and one I love for tenderness and texture, is one I adapted from Allrecipes. Although I have made the recipe as orange rolls many times (and highly recommend it), I substitute a brown sugar/cinnamon filling and vanilla glaze for cinnamon rolls.

Roll the dough on a floured Silpat to about a 24 inch by 18 inch, 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Spread with melted butter, and sprinkle sugar/cinnamon to within about an inch of the edge.


Carefully roll, jelly-roll style, into a tube and pinch the edge to seal.


Cut the dough into 2 inch slices, using a baker's bench knife.


Place the rolls in a 12 by 17 inch parchment-lined pan.


Let rise until light and nearly doubled in bulk.


Bake rolls at 375-400 degrees (depending on your oven) until brown, usually about 25-30 minutes. Immediately drizzle with powdered sugar glaze.

Bread Stalker

A few months ago, I became a follower of The Spiced Life. Laura shares stories of her life as a backdrop to some very appealing recipes, but it is her bread recipes that I stalk, and I've tried two of them with great success.

When I first bit into Maple Oatmeal Bread it immediately became one of the finest breads on the planet. The dough rises cooperatively high. The texture is tender, plumped with whole oats. The taste is slightly sweet and the fragrance hints of syrup--it makes my kitchen smell like pancakes. The recipe lists maple syrup as the signature ingredient, but maple syrup is more expensive than gold here in Oklahoma, so I substitute Griffin's Waffle Syrup. I would like to try this recipe with real maple syrup to see how it affects the flavor. I made a loaf of bread and rolls.


Buttermilk Cheddar Bread is the bread I made yesterday, and it was perfect for roast beef sandwiches. With one and one-half cups of cheese and one and one-fourth cups of buttermilk, the tanginess is what makes this bread special. The flecks of cheese in the dough baked into an attractive dark brown crust that is irresistibly cheddary.

My substitutions were honey for the sugar and a three-cheese blend instead of sharp cheddar. I used King Arthur Flour's SAF Gold Instant Yeast for the first time. The yeast, designed to give a "long, strong, steady rise", did just that, yielding a nicely textured loaf, which sliced easily and held up well to sandwich ingredients.

Here are the recipes with my modifications:

MAPLE OAT BREAD
I made a loaf and about one dozen rolls

2-1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon instant dry yeast
3/4 cup pancake syrup
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 cups unbleached flour

In large mixing bowl pour boiling water over oats. Let sit 30 minutes. Add syrup, salt, and butter, and stir. Cool to lukewarm, add dry yeast and whole wheat flour. Beat on medium speed two minutes, until well combined.

Add flour slowly until dough forms a rough, shaggy mass. Let sit 20 minutes then switch to dough hook and add flour until dough clears sides of bowl or until smooth and elastic. Transfer dough to large oiled bowl and cover; let rise one hour or until doubled.

Grease a 9" x 5" pan. Divide dough in half and shape each half into loaf. Place in bread pans, cover, and let rise 45 minutes or until dough has risen above edges of pan. When dough is close to risen, preheat oven to 350 degrees.


BUTTERMILK CHEESE BREAD
Makes one 9" X 5" loaf

3-1/2 - 4 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons yeast
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup hot water (120 to 130 degrees)
1-1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 tablespoon salted butter

In mixing bowl whisk 1 cup unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, baking powder, and salt. Mix hot water, honey, and buttermilk, add to flour, and beat 3 minutes until smooth. Scrape down the sides of bowl and stir in cheese. Add remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until dough forms a rough mass; switch to dough hook and mix until dough clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise about 1 hour, or until doubled.

Shape dough into loaf and place in prepared pan. Cover and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375, then place pan on low shelf to keep bread from browning too quickly. Loaves are done when deep brown and pull away from sides of pan, about 40 minutes.

When bread is done, brush with melted butter. After 5 minutes loosen sides and turn onto wire rack to cool.

Helen's Danish Kringle

During the Christmas seasons of my youth, neighbors that lived on our country road brought the best Christmas gifts to us--delicious home-baked cakes, cookies, and candies on foil-lined box lids or doily-covered paper plates. My home economics teacher, Helen, was one of our neighbors, and every year we looked forward to her unique Christmas offering, a slightly sweet yeast dough baked around a brown sugar and nut filling that she called Danish Kringle.

When Helen stopped by, although we enjoyed her company, we waited in keen anticipation for her to leave, politely making small talk while trying not to drool from the enticing yeasty aroma emanating from the kringle. Her car would barely leave the driveway before we tore into the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness of the still-warm pastry.

After I got married, I tried in vain to duplicate her recipe. Finally I wrote her asking (begging) for the recipe, and she graciously sent it to me. From that handwritten recipe, I have recreated that warm culinary Christmas memory every year.

Helen's Danish Kringle
2 cups sifted flour
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soft shortening (part butter or margarine)
1/2 cup milk, scalded
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup warm water (110-115 F)
1 pkg active dry yeast

Measure flour, sugar, salt and shortening/butter into bowl; blend well. Cool milk slightly, then stir in egg yolk. Pour into bowl with first ingredients. Add yeast to warm water and let stand a few minutes. Add to all other ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Scrape down dough from sides of bowl (it will be very soft). Cover tightly and chill 2 to not more than 48 hrs in refrigerator.

Prepare fillings before shaping kringles. Divide dough in two parts. Take out one and return other half to refrigerator. Beat egg white. On a floured surface, roll dough into a 6 inch X 18 inch rectangle. Spread 3" center stripe with half of beaten egg white, then carefully spread with filling. Fold over one side of dough and then the other with 1-1/2 inch lap to cover filling. Pinch dough to close the fold.

Pick up kringle carefully and arrange, seam-side down, on baking sheet (I use parchment paper on the baking sheets) in oval or horseshoe shape, pinching ends for the latter. Shape second kringle as first. Cover and let rise in warm place 30-45 min, or until dent remains when finger is pressed gently on side of dough and dough is no longer cold.

Bake in moderately hot oven (400 F) for 20-30 min or until golden brown.

Spread with powdered sugar icing while hot. Cut in wedges to serve. Makes about 2 dozen servings or 2 kringles.

Fillings:
Pecan
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 cup finely chopped or ground nuts
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, then sprinkle with nuts.

Apple Pecan
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 cup finely chopped apples
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
Sprinkle sugar, then apples and pecans

PizzaBons

If you find yourself facing turkey glut on the weekend after Thanksgiving, try PizzaBons. Similar to those huge mall cinnamon rolls, these have cheese and pepperoni instead of sugar and cinnamon.

Simply roll out your favorite bread dough, or you may use frozen dough, add pepperoni and cheese and whatever other pizza ingredients you prefer, roll it up, slice and bake.

I used this bread recipe:

4 cups unbleached flour
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp honey
1 cup water, warm (100-110F)
1 cup yogurt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup flour, yeast, honey and warm water. Beat on low speed of electric mixer, using paddle attachment (may also be done manually). Add yogurt, vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of remaining flour; beat until smooth. Change to dough hook and gradually stir in more flour until you have a soft dough that sticks together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding additional flour if necessary to prevent sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic, or about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Punch dough down and place on lightly floured surface. Using rolling pin, roll into a large rectangle that is about 1/4 inch thick. Mine was about 24 inches by 16 inches; size will vary.

Add to rolled out dough:
Spread 1/4 cup melted butter (optional)
Sliced pepperoni
Any combination of shredded or grated cheeses
Sprinkle of Italian seasoning and/or garlic powder
Your favorite pizza toppings, such as fresh or sauteed onions, peppers, and mushrooms, black olives, sun-dried tomatoes
Grated parmesan cheese

Lightly press ingredients into the dough, then roll up dough, jelly-roll style, pinching edges to seal. Cut into 1 to 1-1/2 inch slices, then place cut-side up onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper or Silpat.

Let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in preheated 375 to 400 degree oven (depending on the calibration of your oven) until golden brown.

Serve with buttermilk ranch dressing or marinara sauce as dipping sauce.

Big Buns, Part 2

Since I first wrote about my love of big buns, a cooking friend blogged about a recipe I like even better, Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls, from the blogspot of Baking Bites. One tablespoon of oil makes it lower in fat than the other recipe, and the yogurt adds a hint of sourdough without all the work. The dough is supple, easy to handle, and rises high. The result is a tender interior with a soft, slightly chewy crust. The flavor is a little tangy with a touch of sweetness from the honey. I've made it three times in the last month. It is my new favorite roll recipe!

Recently I used the recipe to make rolls for sandwiches. Because I was craving more texture, I added milled flax seeds, ground pecans, and shredded cheddar cheese to the batter.

The resulting bun was no longer low in fat, but it was wholesome and made a sturdy vehicle for juicy tomato slices--pecans added a hearty crumb, and the cheddar made nice little browned crunchy bits on the crust.

I Like Big Buns and I Cannot Lie

Only in a grocery store can one make the statement "I want bigger buns" and make perfect sense. Packaged hamburger buns are tiny; although I didn't whip out my measuring tape, I would estimate they are about 4 inches in diameter. Even the ones labeled "giant" are only a half an inch wider. My hubby makes huge patties for the grill, so the buns must accommodate. The solution? Homemade buns.

The best recipe I've found for homemade hamburger buns is by Marg on RecipeZaar and can be found here. With one bite of a juicy charcoaled ground beef patty wrapped in that BIG, tender bread, fragrant with yeast, the mixing and rising time becomes a distant memory.

This recipe is very adaptable to additions such as whole wheat pastry flour, herbs, sesame seeds or poppy seeds. The last time I made them I added chopped fresh rosemary to the dough.

Try it. You'll never want small buns again.

The Bread Whisperer

Coaxing bread to rise...somewhat like making a pie crust, it mocks the confidence of the most experienced baker. While reaching around to pat myself on the back, I will state that I find it easy and enjoyable. My secret? I think there are 3 elements to successful bread-making:

- Proofing the yeast
- Creating the atmosphere
- Relaxing in the moment

I used to buy Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast, and I still think it is a good product. Now that I consider myself a fancy professional and think I need more exclusive (expensive) elements in my kitchen, I order the good stuff--SAF Gold Instant Yeast--from King Arthur Flour. It is available in a one pound package and doesn't last long in my kitchen, so I buy two packages at a time. My very favorite yeast is Fermipan, but it is hard to find.

The whole proofing process is just so darned easy, I almost hate to reveal it. Simply get a cup of warm water from the tap, add a teaspoon of sugar, and add the yeast. Mix it well, and let it sit. Within 10 minutes a bubbling, fragrant mass rises above the water and is ready to add to the remainder of the recipe ingredients. Proofing the yeast used to be essential to ensure that the yeast was still alive. I know that with my mega-yeast, this step is really unnecessary. But it is part of the Bread Whisperer's routine.

The atmosphere in which bread can rise is one that Goldilocks would approve--it is neither too hot nor too cold. Bread dough seems to like my cold oven with the oven light on--the light provides just enough warmth. Sometimes I simply place the dough beneath my under-counter light, and that also works well. Make your dough comfy, and it will thank you.

Making bread is my glass of wine. How satisfying it is to whisper yeast and flour into dough that I can play with, loll about the kitchen while it rises, breathe its ambrosial scent while it bakes, and then butter a slice straight from the oven...really, I shouldn't get paid for this.