Chunky Bread and Bread Bakers Dog Updates

If you have been following my other blog, Feeding My Enthusiasms, you'll know that I have had dental (gum) surgery and have been on soft foods for over a week. It gets old. It is also difficult to get up much enthusiasm for baking a nice, crusty bread when you won't be able to eat it. Doing better, but still mostly eating soft foods. By next week I'll be back to sterner stuff.

Today I did bake two nice loaves of fresh, fragrant bread because Sweetie really, really deserved some bread and this is the one he requested. He put up most of the signs for a Yard Sale that the P.E.O. chapter I belong to is holding today to raise money for scholarships for women. Over an hour last night and about the same this morning (staring at 6:30 am!) certainly earned him something special from the oven. He followed that up with about 6 hours of tree trimming and then chipping the branches trimmed, with liberal assistance from Straight Shooter from SF.

This bread is also by way of a thank you to Straight Shooter from SF because he returned from a photo shoot to Napa last weekend with some freshly ground wheat bread flour and spelt flour. I used a cup of the whole wheat flour in the bread and as I was kneading it I could really smell the sweetness of fresh grain.

This bread is a variation of the asparagus bread that the Bread Baking Babes made in June. I substituted 1/2 cup cubes, roasted zucchini for the asparagus. I used 1/2 cup fresh Swiss chard (cut in chiffonade, steamed, drained and squeezed dry, then measured) instead of the arugula in the original recipe. I used 1 cup of the freshly milled whole wheat bread flour and three cups of unbleached white bread flour. Because tomatoes are late to ripen but the basil is going gangbusters, I added 1/4 cup minced fresh basil. Zucchini doesn't have the assertive flavor that asparagus does, but the basil not only smells wonderful, but adds great herby taste to the bread. Otherwise the recipe is the same.

This makes a moist, flavorful, chunky bread, full of veggies, nuts and Parmesan. The crumb is soft and fairly tight and the crust is good, although not as good as last time when I used the sourdough starter. I did add steam a couple of times, but didn't open the oven door...already too hot in the house! The loaves are a bit on the flat side, partly because I think I let them rise too long for the second rise and partly because the plethora of veggies makes it hard to have a good 'skin' of dough to hold the loaf higher.

I'm sending this lucious bread over to Yeastspotting, one of the best places to see what other bakers are doing with yeast bread! Check it out!!

Update on Xam: He had surgery this past Thursday to remove a large mass back to the left of his spine by his tail. A fluid biopsy a few days earlier had shown infection, but not cancer, so we have our fingers crossed...won't hear until Tuesday. He is in good spirits and doesn't seem to have noticed the 30 stitches on his rump! He ate bits of this bread with great gusto!

Asparagus (Zucchini) Bread
(with Parmesan Cheese and Walnuts - 2 small loaves)

125 g green asparagus (I used 1/2 cup diced, roasted zucchini instead)
25-30 g rocket (I used 1/2 cup Swiss chard instead)

1/4 cup minced fresh basil
50 g walnuts,
50 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
450 g strong bread flour (you can also use half whole wheat and half white or white whole wheat if you can get that) (I used 1 cup whole wheat bread flour and 3 cups unbleached white bread flour)
12 g fresh yeast or 1 1/4 tsp dry instant yeast
250-270 g water (whole wheat version may use a little more water)
25 g olive oil
10 g (sea) salt

Boil 3/4 liter of water with a pinch of (sea) salt. Clean the asparagus, set two of them aside, cut the rest into 4 pieces. Boil these pieces for 2 minutes in the water, scoop them out (so you can use the water for the rocket as well) and rinse under cold water (to stop them cooking).

Put the rocket in the boiling water for a few seconds (until wilted), drain and rinse under cold water and drain again. Press the water our of the rocket, chop it coarsely and but the asparagus into 1/4 inch (± 1 cm) long pieces, set aside.

Crush the walnuts coarsely and grate the Parmesan.

Measure the flour and yeast in a large bowl, mix in most of the water and knead for a few minutes (on low speed), add the olive oil and knead for 10-12 minutes. Add the salt and knead on medium speed for 5 minutes until very elastic.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Work the asparagus pieces(zucchini pieces), rocket(Swiss chard), walnuts, basil and Parmesan in with care so that they're evenly distributed. The dough should be very supple and elastic, hence the long kneading time. For me the best way to incorporate all the ingredients is to spread the dough out into a large slap, sprinkle all the ingredients on and roll it up. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, press flat and fold... rest 5-10 minutes press flat and fold. Shape into rounds.

Place the dough in a greased container, cover and let rise for about 2 hrs.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.
Make round balls, cover with a tea towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
Flatten the balls and fold into taut breads with slightly tapering ends. Lay one asparagus in lengthwise in the middle of the bread and press in slightly. Sprinkle with wheat flour and cover to rise for 70 minutes or until doubled. Before baking you can sprinkle a little grated cheese on the bread if you like (optional).

Preheat the oven (preferably with stone) to 460ºF.

Place the loaves directly on the stone. Spray with water (or poor some hot water in a metal container on the bottom of the oven that you preheated to create steam)
Lower the temperature after 5 minutes to 400ºF. Open the door after another 10 minutes to let some air in. Repeat twice during baking. (I must admit I forgot about this step)
Bake for 40-45 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

http://notitievanlien.blogspot.com/2009/06/bbbabes-go-seasonal.html June 26th

Bread Baker's Dog Returns with Zucchini Cheese Bread

Xam, the Bread Baker's Dog, is finally doing well. His infection has cleared up after three full weeks of antibiotics, twice daily warm compresses, and lots of love, affection, and vet bills. Since he found the compresses a bit uncomfortable, after the first two times he knew when it was happening and refused to cooperate. Since bribery works, he soon found that the compresses were accompanied by doggie cookies to munch on. It's also called positive reinforcement, but truly it was bribery. Come sit on Sweetie's lap while Mom presses a warm towel where it already hurts. The joys of dog ownership!

The other good news is that his appetite is back...Sweetie's never left...so it's time for bread baking. Since the zucchini continue to be fruitful and multiply and fill the platter on the table, it seemed like a good zucchini bread recipe would be just the ticket. I've only had the sweet, spicy quick bread type so I went looking for a good recipe in my cookbooks. On the way I found a yeasted on that wasn't sweet and included cheese. It's in Breaking Bread with Father Dominic under the Veggie Bread category. It makes two loaves and the crust gets nice and brown because of all the cheese.

As usual I changed it a bit. Father's version called for caraway seeds and Swiss cheese, but I went with Parmesan cheese and fresh minced basil, plus some pine nuts on top, for a more Mediterranean feel. I used olive oil for the vegetable oil and some 12 grain flour from King Arthur's for part of the flour, both of which added some needed flavor.

It made a lovely, moist bread with a good crumb and great crust.

The cheese isn't a dominant flavor, but you can tell that it's there. The zucchini add moistness and some nice speckles, but very little flavor. Even the basil is a hint, not a hit. It's marvelous freshly cooled, but also good as toast. It's a batter bread. I baked one loaf in a loaf pan and the other in a cast iron skillet. The skillet one had a particularly wonderful bottom crust, but the interior was still quite moist but not gummy. Now that I've made an Asparagus Bread (see June 20th post) that he loooovvved and a Zucchini Cheese Bread that he couldn't stop eating, I think I've made a veggie bread lover out of Sweetie!

And Xam?...he love all baked goods. I tried three times to get a photo of him eating a small piece of this bread, but he scarfed it down so fast that each photo was a black blur...this one is the best!

Guess he likes Zucchini Cheese Bread, too!

I've been missing the weekly wonderful event that is Yeastspotting at Susan's Wild Yeast...no time to even go there and drool over the bread being baked by the fantastic bakers featured there...so it's nice to have an entry again...and time to bake bread. Here is the URL for Susan's blog :http://www.wildyeastblog.com/ Nick at Imafoodblog is the host this time. His URL is: http://www.imafoodblog.com/ . Thanks Nick!!

Yeasted Zucchini Cheese Batter Bread
adapted from a recipe in Breaking Bread with Father Dominic
Yields 2 loaves

2 cups milk at room temperature
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 packages active dry yeast (1/2 oz)
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 tablespoon salt
about 3 cups bread flour, divided
2 cups 12-grain bread flour (or additional plain bread flour), divided
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded zucchini, excess liquid squeezed out in a towel
2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)

Combine milk, egg, oil, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir until the yeast is completely dissolved. Add the basil, pepper, salt, and 1 cup each of the bread flour and the 12-grain flour. Beat well (about 150 strokes by hand or three minutes with an electric mixer). Stir in the cheese and zucchini. Add another cup of bread flour and cup of 12-grain flour; beat well. Add enough of the remaining bread flour to make a thick batter that is still easy to manage. Stir until all flour is thoroughly incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to make sure there are no pockets of flour on the bottom of the bowl.

Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place about 1 hour. Thoroughly grease two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Stir the batter down. Divide the batter between pans. It should fill each pan halfway. Cover and let rise about 20 minutes or until dough nearly reaches the top of the pan. If desired, sprinkle about a tablespoon of pine nuts on the top of each loaf just before baking.

While dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake about 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean and top crust feels solid. Let cool slightly in pans before attempting to remove loaves. Note: If top crust browns too quickly due to the cheese, tent some aluminum foil over it to slow the browning process.

Babes Bodacious Asparagus Bread

The Bread Baking Babes have a real winner this time with a delicious, seasonal and unusual Asparagus Bread, chosen by Lien who blogs at Nottie Van Lien's. The recipe is found HERE and I'm making it as a Bread Baking Buddy type person.

There is plenty of green in this bread from the asparagus and from arugula (although I substituted Swiss chard because my garden is producing so much of it I have to use it where ever I can!) but what ties the flavors together is the walnuts. It makes two smallish loaves of a very moist and tender, flavorful and pretty bread.

While it was still a little warm from the oven I cut a slice and gave it to Sweetie. He made appreciative noises, so I asked for a bite. After I took the bite I started to move away from Sweetie and he reminded me that he was only giving me a bite...he really wanted to finish that slice...and about half the loaf with dinner!

One of the things I missed during my travels in May was making bread. Since I've been back it's been hard to find the time, so it was a real pleasure to have my hands in yeast dough again. Don't expect that all of the non-dough ingredients will be totally encased in the dough once it has baked. Having the odd little bit of asparagus or chard peeking out is part of the pleasure for me.

Do give this recipe a try. If you have a stand mixer to do the kneading, it is a simple recipe. The veggies are basically blanched, drained, and chopped. The rest is pretty fun and the results are spectacular!

This is my entry for this week in Susan's event Yeastspotting at Wild Yeast. If you check out last week's entries you will see at least one loaf of this outstanding seasonal bread. You can also visit all of the Babes's sites using the links on Lein's blog.

Want to be a Buddy, too? Lein tells you how and you still have time...the deadline is June 26th!

On the home front, please keep our dear Bakers Dog Xam in your thoughts. He had surgery on Monday for a glandular infection, but will be seeing the vet on Thursday to see if there are other things wrong. Took him on his first walk this week today and he seemed fine if a bit slower than usual. Fingers and toes crossed that the surgery took care of it all.

Leftovers Make Cheese Croutons

You gotta love cheese to enjoy this bread. I've been a big fan of cheese most of my life. When I was pregnant the second time I had a lactose intolerance. Cheese was the dairy product I missed most. Even one slice of this will sooth a cheese craving.


The dough has lots of grated cheddar cheese, plus some grated Parmesan. Here and there are bits of salty feta, too.Here is a photo of the bread ready to roll into a loaf, spread with the herb, lemon zest and lots of feta.

When Sweetie bought a five pound bag of grated cheese at Costco I discovered just how much cheese that is! There are bags in the freezer, each with 2 cups of the cheese, plus a big gallon bag in the fridge. Seemed like a good time to make a bread with cheese.

This one is pretty simple, using sourdough starter, some bread flour and whole wheat flour, a little olive oil, some milk, a bit of sugar and salt, and both cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.

Once the dough was set to rise, I decided to jazz it up a bit by making a swirl in the loaf. The added flavors of the swirl include lemon zest, fresh marjoram, and feta cheese. It turned out that I didn't use enough marjoram to really make it a visual swirl (I used fresh marjoram from the garden, but it's early enough in the season that I only had a tablespoon, minced, once I was done),

but the baked bread is alive with the flavors of the herb, lemon and feta. Sort of like a quick trip to Greece, maybe. With three kinds of cheese, it's a true Cheese Bread.

On the off chance that there are leftovers, you can cut them up, toast the cubes, and have cheese croutons for salad or to top soup.

The dough is soft, but not sticky. I didn't glaze the top, but I did slash it diagonally. Eat this while it is still warm and you won't need to add a thing. I did find that ti took longer to bake than I had thought it would. Do bake it until it gives a hollow sound when the bottom is tapped when you turn it out to cool on the wire rack. If you don't get that sound, put it back in the pan and baked some more. You can tent it with foil while it finishes baking if the crust gets too brown.

Once it is cool it becomes a great sandwich bread, especially for cured meats like salami or ham. If you are a true cheese fanatic, try making a grilled cheese sandwich with this bread. Outstanding!

Cheese Cheese Cheese Bread with Herb and Lemon

1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cheddar cheese, finely shredded

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup whole wheat flour
2-3 cups bread flour, divided

2 tablespoons freshly minced marjoram (oregano could be used instead)
1 teaspoon lemon zest - yellow part only

about 1 cup feta cheese

In stand mixer bowl, mix together the sourdough starter, milk, olive oil, sugar, salt, cheddar and Parmesan cheeses. Take the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the bread flour and mix together in a medium bowl. Use the dough hook on the mixer and add the flour mixture to the sourdough mixture. Add additional bread flour and let machine knead the dough as you do until the dough is soft but not sticky.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for another minute or two. Shape into a ball and place ball in oiled bowl or whatever container you use to let bread dough rise in. Lightly oil the top of the ball, then cover with plastic wrap, place in a warm, draft free place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands. spread the dough into a rectangle roughly 9" x 11". Distribute the herb and zest evenly over the surface, leaving about an inch at the ends free of herb and lemon zest. Distribute the feta evenly over the herb-lemon zest mixture, again leaving the ends free of cheese. Roll up jelly roll fashion along the long edge and seal the edges by pinching them. Turn under the ends and place, seam side down, in a bread pan. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place until the bread just reaches the top of the pan, about an hour.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for about 45 minutes or until hollow sounding when bottom is tapped. Let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes one loaf.

This is my entry this week in Susan of Wild Yeast's Yeastspotting (http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting/ ) event, a wonderland of delightful recipes collected each week to bemuse and inspire those who love to bake with yeast.