One Potato Two Potato

The Bread Baking Babes usually come up with great bread recipes to bake. I don't always have the time between when they post and when a "Buddy" post needs to be up, but this time I did.

I woke up early today and decided to quietly peel and boil some potatoes for the mashed potatoes so that they would be cool for later baking. The house smelled great and it smelled even better when I baked the bread for dinner.

In between was a lot of running around looking at shower door samples and getting paint chips and getting shower stall samples and looking at vanities and sinks and mixer valves. Fun, but time consuming. The dough that had been left to rise at noon when we were just going a ten minute drive away to pick up a window turned into many hours gone. Fortunately this dough didn't seem to suffer from my neglect. I used about twice as much chives as the recipe called for. No soy milk in the house, either, so I used 2%. For the water at the beginning of the recipe I used the water that I had cooked the potatoes in, although it had cooled down.

The two smaller loaves I made baked up beautifully. The crust was golden and had a nice crackle. The interior crumb was fine and moist and very flavorful. I'm afraid that Sweetie ate about a third of the loaf while it was still warm...and who can blame him?

I'm going to try some toasted tomorrow morning. Bet it would be great with some cream cheese.

Thanks to Sara for choosing this great bread. My dough was a bit sticky but that's what bench scrapers are for. The contrast between the crisp crust and moist interior was really great! I did brush a little beaten egg over the loaves just before I slit the tops. Gives them a nice color and shine.

The recipe below includes my changes. For the original recipe and to become a Bread Baking Babes Buddy, go to Sara's blog, I Like to Cook.

Potato Bread with Chives
adapted from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson

"The addition of mashed potatoes gives this bread a moist, dense texture and delicate flavor that is accented by that of the chives. This bread is best eaten slightly warm from the oven on the day it is made. It is also good toasted."

2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water that the potatoes were cooked in
1 tsp pure maple syrup
2 Tb safflower oil
2 tsp salt
1 cup cold mashed potatoes
1 cup 2% milk
5 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus more for kneading
¼ cup minced fresh chives
1 egg, beaten

In a large bowl, combine the yeast and 1/4 cup of the potato water. Add the maple syrup and stir to dissolve. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, then stir in the remaining 3/4 cup of potato water, the safflower oil and the salt. Mix in the potatoes, then stir in the milk. Add about half the flour, stirring to combine, then work in the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Transfer to a lightly floured board.

Lightly flour your hands and work surface. Knead the dough well until it is smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes, using more flour as necessary so the dough does not stick. Place in a large lightly oiled bowl and turn over once to coat with oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Meanwhile, lightly oil a large baking sheet and set aside. Punch the dough down and knead lightly. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, sprinkle with the chives, and knead until the dough is elastic and the chives are well distributed, 3 to 5 minutes. Shape the dough into one large or two small round loaves and place on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly and cover with a clean damp towel or lightly oiled plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400'F. Paint the loaves with beaten egg. Use a sharp knife to cut an X into the top of the loaf or loaves. Bake on the center oven rack until golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes, depending on size. Tap on the bottom of the loaf or loaves - if they sound hollow, the bread is done. Remove from the sheet and let cool slightly on a wire rack before slicing.

Bread Baking Babes Buddy Bakes Ensaimadas

Poor BBD is not getting much attention these days. Fortunately the dog himself still gets lots of attention, walks, rubs, and loving, plus at least a taste of any bread baked.


The Bread Baking Babes all bake the same recipe once a month and this month Karen of Bake My Day has come up with a winner. Sweetie, Straight Shooter and I just had a lunch of freshly made minestrone soup and hot from the oven Ensaimadas rolls and they were gone in a flash.

Light, tender, buttery and almost like croissants without the repeated rolling and folding and butter block that they require, these rolls will likely become the recipe I turn to when I want dinner rolls.

Part of the fun for me was that I made good use of the lovely scale I was given for Christmas. Once the mixing bowl was weighed, I zeroed out the weight, added the flour, zeroed again, added the sugar and was ready to go on with the recipe with nothing extra to wash, plus it was fast! I used the scale again when I was dividing the dough into balls. That way each roll was almost the exact weight as the others.


Not only are these Ensaimadas delicious but they are pretty to look at, too, being sort of snail shaped.

The rolling of each piece of dough into a very thin circle took the lion's share of the work needed to make these. The dough itself was quick and easy. You do need to allow some rising time as with all yeasted breads, but since they are rolls, it is less than with most loaves of bread.

For fun I made half of the rolls (5) exactly as called for in the recipe and then I dolled up the other half. Two have raspberry jam spread lightly over the butter before rolling up.

The other three have cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the butter.

This post will be entered in this weeks Yeastspotting, found at Susan's Wild Yeast blog, and also in Bread Baking Day #27 - Latin Breads, hosted by Gretchen of Canela and Comino, because this bread, originally from Spain, can be found in countries south of the U.S. border, too. Check out the events and also the Bread Baking Babes renditions of these delicate and delicious rolls. Links for the other Babes can be found at Karen and Gretchen's blogs.

Ensaimadas
from Nicole at Delicious Days blog
(yields about 10 Ensaimadas):

Ingredients:
500g all-purpose flour (plus additional as needed )
75g sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
40g fresh yeast (= 1 cube) =3 tsp active dry yeast
200-250ml lukewarm milk
2 eggs (M)
2 tbsp olive oil
150g soft pork lard (I used butter)
powdered sugar for dusting (didn't do this for the ones eaten with the soup)

Add the flour together with sugar and salt into a large bowl (I used my KitchenAid bowl) and mix well. Make a hollow in the center, add the crumbled yeast (I used active dry yeast) and pour over just enough of the lukewarm milk until the yeast is covered. Stir the yeast milk once or twice, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rest for about 15 minutes or until the surface of the yeast milk looks bubbly.

Add the other ingredients (the remaining milk, eggs,olive oil ) and knead well, either by hand or with your kitchen machine until the dough comes together nicely. I used less milk in the beginning (200 or 220 ml, while the original recipe suggests 250 ml) and my dough still turned out pretty sticky, I therefor added a tad more flour and let it knead at medium speed for 3 minutes (just for the record: my dough still felt sticky). Let the covered bowl rest again in a warm place for at least 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled.

Punch it down softly, then flip the dough onto a well-floured surface and sprinkle with flour. Cut into about 10 equally sized portions and form into neat little balls, before letting them rest – sprinkled with flour, covered with a kitchen towel – once more for at least 30 minutes.

Shaping the Ensaimadas: Flatten one doughball, then roll out with a rolling pin (use flour as needed) until you get a pretty thin dough circle and brush it generously with the softened pork lard (I used soft butter).

Roll up cautiously, then let rest for a couple of minutes and continue with the other dough balls. (Meanwhile line the baking sheets with either parchment paper or silicone mats.)


Coil up each dough piece until it resembles the house of a snail (tuck the outer end under), ideally very loosely, because any spaces will fill up as the dough rises further. Place about five Ensaimadas on one baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space between them. Lightly brush with lard and cover up again.

The final rise is supposed to last overnight, yet I baked mine in three different batches (with rising times of 1 hour, 4 hours, 13 hours) and we preferred their look and taste with shorter rising times (1 and 4 hours). But do as you like. (I baked mine at 2 and three hours and they were wonderful!)

Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390° Fahrenheit) and bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Take out and let them cool down on a wire rack for a couple of minutes, then generously dust with powdered sugar and enjoy while still warm. (I left off the powdered sugar for the ones we ate with the soup. They are not terribly sweet without it and went well with the soup.)

Pain Francese with the Babes

No, that's not pain, it's bread. Simple white bread. Delicious artisan bread.


The Bread Baking Babes baked a very simple loaf this month, Pain Francese, from King Arthur flour folks.

You start with a chef. You might think that means someone wearing a tall white hat, but actually its the term for a small piece of dough from a previous baking session.

Since I didn't have a chef, I made one with some sourdough starter, so that added to the time necessary to make this bread. It has a number of stages, so it takes a couple of days. The good news is that the flavors become more complex with all that time.

Once you have your chef, you cut it into small pieces and dissolve it in some water. Then you make a dough by adding flour, let it rise, then chop it up again, dissolve it again in warm water, again make a dough by adding flour...simple doesn't mean fast by any means.

My loaf formed a wonderful crust, a fine crumb, and deep flavor considering that it is mostly yeast, flour and water. Have not tried it toasted yet, but I'll bet it makes nice toast. Top Gun tried it for lunch as part of a sandwich and gave it thumbs up.

Thanks to the Bread Baking Babes for choosing this recipe...I now have a chef in my fridge to use for some future baking session!

Check out the BBB's and the recipe at Sara' blog at I Like to Cook http://iliketocook.blogspot.com/search/label/Bread%20Baking%20Babes

or by clicking on the recipe link at the top left of this blog.

The Bread Baker's Dog himself is not one to give kisses very often, but after eating some of this bread he gave me a simple kiss. (Sorry, no photo...he was too quick).

Pain Francese

First stage- chef
¼ cup sourdough starter
¼ cup warm water
¾ cup bread flour, plus about another ¼ cup for kneading
Mix dough together, then knead about 5 minutes using bench scraper and adding flour as needed. Put in oiled bowl, cover with plastic, let rise until doubled, 5-6 hrs.

Second-Stage Levain
All of the levain (from above)
1/2 cup warm, chlorine-free water
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Special Bread Flour

"Refresh" the levain by placing it in a medium-sized bowl, chopping it into small pieces, and adding the water and 1/2 cup of the flour, stirring till smooth. Add the remaining flour gradually to create a stiff dough. Knead the dough for several minutes, then return it to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rise for 3 to 5 hours, till it doubles in size. Punch down the risen levain, and reserve 1/4 cup as your next chef. (Let the piece ferment at room temperature for 3 hours, then wrap it in plastic and store it in the fridge. It'll develop a hard crust; that's OK.)

Dough
all of the second-stage levain (from above)
3/4 cup warm, chlorine-free water
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Special Bread Flour

Chop the levain into small pieces,



and mix them with the water, stirring till they begin to dissolve.



Add the salt, then 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured or lightly greased work surface, and knead until the dough is smooth and satiny, adding only enough additional flour to keep the dough from sticking unbearably. Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 8 to 10 hours.

Shaping: Cut the dough into 2 pieces, and shape each piece into a round or oval. Transfer the loaves to a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, or to a floured banneton; cover with a heavily floured cloth, and allow them to rise for 2 to 3 hours, or until they're almost doubled in bulk.

Don't slash or glaze the loaves. Bake the bread in a preheated 450°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until they're a deep, golden brown. Yield: 2 loaves.

This is what the bottom of the loaf looked like after it was baked. I baked it on a Silpat mat...wonder if that caused the interesting crust? The top crust was much more floury looking.