Ribolita

One of my favorite soups, Ribollita, served with homemade croutons and asiago cheese.


Homemade croutons are a great way to use stale homemade bread. Just cut the bread in cubes drizzle with olive oil (I like to warm the oil on the stovetop with a garlic clove first) and dust with salt. Then broil until nicely browned. Mmmm.

You can add herbs, but I didn't want the flavor of the croutons to compete with the flavor of the soup.

Light wheat bread

This week...or really last week...I mixed up some light whole wheat bread from Artisan Breads in 5 min a Day. I had every intention of starting with bread, just regular bread, but I never got around to it.

I made pizza twice (once for us and once for the fam). I like to leave the classic pizza to the pizza places. I can't recreate that experience. So I make interesting pizza. This is my own special bruschetta pizza with Ricotta cheese (the cheese serves as a sauce of sorts), and it is definitely worth a try. It's hearty because of the bread, but the toppings (which you don't cook) are light and full of fresh flavor...SO GOOD! The perfect summer balance.

Then, last night, I tried to make pita bread. According to the directions, the light wheat, rolled out really thin, should puff like a pita. Mine didn't (I'm going to have to try that again). But it made really yummy flat bread with random puffs, a crunchy crust, and a soft top.

I used the flat bread as a bun of sorts for kidney bean burgers, my favorite of the bean burgers. To make kidney bean burgers just give all of the following ingredients a whirl in the food processor: a can of kidney beans (drained), an egg, a small onion, whatever spices you want (I used fresh parsley, worchestershire sauce, chilli powder, and garlic powder), and enough binder to make the mixture the consistancy of a burger. You can use whatever binder you want: oatmeal, corn meal, bread crumbs, or whatever else you have on hand (I used matzo meal this time). Wala! Bean burgers.

....on still warm, fresh from the oven, flat bread.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread with Friends

The book review--amended

Last week I wanted to make bread to take to a friend's house. I made two loaves: the original NY times no knead bread and a cinnamon raisin swirl bread from Kneadlessly Simple (you know, the book I just recommended). And I have to tell you. I found them to be a pain.

The night before I wanted to bake I mixed up the cinnamon raisin bread and stuck it in the frig. The author recommends chilling the dough for 3-10 hours before you start the "first rise." In the morning, before work, I took it out of the frig and mixed up the other no knead bread. I left both out on the counter while I was at work. They needed to rise for at least 12 hours, so they weren't ready for the "second rise" until 8 pm. My sexy husband and I like to go to a coffee shop/open mic/charity thing every Thursday night, and waiting until 8 pm made us late (besides the fact that to ready the cinnamon bread for the second rise I had to mix in a bunch more ingredients and roll it out and roll it up...which took about 15-20 min). After arriving late, I had to leave early because I had bread on the counter rising, and the second rise was only 2 hours. Unfortunately, the two breads didn't bake at the same temperature. So I had to bake the cinnamon bread first and then wait for the oven to get hotter to bake the no knead bread. I think Nancy Baggett, the author if Kneadlessly Simple, is a big fan of steps because she made me bake the bread for 20-25 covered, 20-25 min uncovered, check to see if it's done...if you think it's done, bake 10 more minutes (because it probably wasn't really done). Geez! By the time I finished baking both breads it was midnight, and I still had to let them cool.

So....I really thought it would take me a while to determine which book I liked better: Artisan Breads in 5 min a day or Kneadlessly Simple. But although I still reserve the right to change my mind based upon flavor, Artisan Breads in 5 Min a Day has taken the early lead, a very big early lead, an almost insurmountable early lead. The bread recipes in both books are easy. However, the recipes in Artisan Breads are just so convenient.

With Artisan Breads I just mix, wait 2 hours and refrigerate. Then the bread dough is practically ready whenever I need it, no worries about changing my mind or having something come up. Besides that, last night I mixed up the light wheat bread (even mixing has less steps in this book), ate dinner, watched a little TV, and stuck it in the frig. Now, with that one recipe, I can make a round loaf, a pan loaf, a baguette, pizza, pita, and probably more stuff I can't think of right now....calzones? I don't even have to decide with any confidence what I want to eat for the next 2 weeks!

Easy is one thing. But for those of us who don't live on schedules, don't have a lot of time, or need to be flexible, you can't beat easy and convenient.

Bread--no knead method #2

What can I say about this second method of kneadless bread making? I'm just so excited about it. Perhaps the writers among you will accept this analogy: There is always danger in talking about a paper or a story you're about to write. The danger is that in expressing it orally, you will lose the desire to express it in written form. And that's my problem. I'm so INCREDIBLY excited about this recipe that I've talked about nothing else for about 3 days straight. Now I'm not sure if I can write about it. I just want to make it and eat it and love it...oh, and I'm not tired of talking about it yet. :)

So I'll leave it to the NY Times to give you the specific recipe and I'll simply describe the method.

I'm so excited, I don't know where to begin....

Here's the idea: you mix up a lot of wet dough (enough to make approximately 4 small loaves...6 cups of flour's worth, if that gives you any idea) using a spoon or your hands or whatever. Then you leave it out to rise for 4 hours or so. Then you put it in the refrigerator. It will store for up to 2 weeks. Whenever you want AWESOME homemade bread (and I do mean awesome) you cut off a grapefruit sized piece, let it set for about 40 min and bake it. Perfection! That's it.

How does it compare to the other no knead recipe? I'm glad you asked. The crust is the same...very...crusty (though I learned that a "crackling crust" refers to the sound it makes when it comes out of the oven...like rice crispies only louder). The texture of the "crumb" is also the same (I also learned that the name for this texture is a "custard crumb"). The only real difference is that the flavor resembles sour dough a little bit more than the first recipe. When my sexy husband tried it, the first words out of his mouth were "oh, wow" --in a good way. Though, when pressed, he said he likes the first bread better because he doesn't prefer sour dough bread. I LOVE sour dough bread with an extra crusty crust. So this was all me.

Oh! And for those of you who, like my sexy husband, don't prefer sour dough bread: this was a REALLY mild sour dough taste that was almost neutralized by some butter or sandwich ingredients.

At the expense of the skin on one of his thumbs my sexy husband cut the top off the little loaf, then sliced it lenghwise for our sprout sandwiches on still-warm-from-the-oven homemade bread...with crusty crust on the whole bottom!

"Oh, wow!"

If you're at all interested in trying bread making, I HIGHLY recommend this method. It doesn't even require a covered pot this time. :)

Bread-- whole wheat

Alright. Mrs. W. asked the question. And I knew she would ask. :) "Do you think this recipe would work with Whole Wheat flour?"

Every time I try to add whole wheat flour to bread or crackers or anything else, my sexy husband always wants to know why I want to mess with a good thing. However, if you're interested in making whole wheat no knead bread, I have 3 recommendations.

1) You could just try substituting some or all of the flour for whole wheat flour and let me know what you think. :) ...or check out the many blogs of other people who tried.

2) You could play around with Bittman's faster whole wheat no knead bread which makes a loaf instead of a round...or his regular whole wheat no knead bread.

3) Or if you are really into this concept, you could buy the following book, which should arrive at my door from Amazon.com on Saturday: Kneadlessly simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads. The author makes tons of different kinds of bread, including whole wheat, using this no-knead and lots of time formula.

Or...I suppose...you could wait around until I get my book, try a whole wheat bread, and recommend it to you...which might happen soon. :)

Bread--where it all began

I'm no good at finding deals at the grocery store. I decide what I want to eat, make my list, and buy everything on it. I don't check to see what's on sale. And although I do look for the best price on a particular item, I don't track the prices between stores or remember how much it cost last week. But even I have noticed the incredible jump in the price of bread. When my sexy husband and I got married just 3 1/2 years ago, I could buy baguettes at Mejiers or Kroger for 99 cents. Shortly thereafter, the price went up, but I could still find them on sale for 99 cents routinely. I'm not sure when it happened, but those same baguettes are $2.50 or more now...and they aren't even THAT good.

So...I've decided to do a short (or maybe long...we'll see where this takes us) series on homemade bread. And I'm starting where it all began for me...No knead bread. Truthfully, I'm not really sure it can get better from here.

Let's face it. Bread is scary, but this bread is completely fool-proof. It doesn't even require special equipment. All you'll need is some flour, rapid rise yeast, salt, water, a bowl, and an oven-proof pot with a lid that can withstand temperatures of 450 degrees (and an oven, if you want to get technical). The pot doesn't have to be anything in particular. I've used my Corningware stoneware (similar to their current creations line) 3 quart covered casserole dish, and I've used my enamelled cast iron dutch oven (6 quart, I think).

The basic idea of this bread is that you are using very little yeast, a lot of time, and a lot of water to create a wonderful, crusty, soft, moist loaf.

I start my bread the night before I'm going to want to eat it. You may want to start it two nights before (that's the only draw back of the bread). In a large bowl, mix 3 c all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, and 1 1/4 tsp salt. Then add 1 5/8 c water and mix thoroughly. Your dough will be very wet. It will not form the nice ball that you would expect if you have made bread before. Mine looked like this:


And then you wait. The recipe says to wait 12-18 hours. I just mix the bread up before I got to bed, and it's more than ready when I get home from work the next day. It should be covered with small bubbles like this:


Then lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Don't worry, mine wasn't pretty either. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. After it has "rested" the recipe says to use just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers and gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Mine did not shape into a ball...just a different blob. I'm not sure the towel is necessary, but the recipe then says to generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side (what seam?) down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. According to the recipe, when it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. I didn't check.

30 min before you're going to want to bake this shaggy loaf, heat oven to 450 degrees with your pot already in it. (The recipe recommends a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot...cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic.) "When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned." Cool on a rack.

And this is what you get: a crusty (they call it a "shattering crust") bread with a fantastic "crumb" that you can use for almost anything.

If I made it seem hard, check out the original recipe from the NY Times. I think they even have a video. Trust me, anyone can do this....and it's going to be the best loaf of bread you've ever had.

Success!

Last time I made stovetop pizza it was not so good. Apparently my pan was too hot because the pizza had little burned spots (nothing nicely browned), was not fully cooked on the inside, and wasn't hot enough to melt the toppings. This time I kept the burner at medium (which required a bit more patience for the pan to heat up), and it was a total success....Just like Mark Bittman said, nicely browned on the outside and soft and wonderful on the inside. However, contrary to what Bittman says, I would use less oil for the first pizza and add more as necessary. The first one was a bit greasy.

My toppings worked well too. Mark said he preferred the lamb to the sausage (though both were good), but he liked the pizza dough better than using a pita in the oven. And putting fully cooked stuff on top of the crust worked really well too...and looked beautiful. I started to think that you could put a salad on top of the crust (with arugala and asparagus...man, that could be good), and it would be great. Or bruschetta! You could make a bruschetta pizza by putting a whole garlic clove in the oil (to flavor) and topping the pizza with warmed (or cold) bruschetta topping.

Oh man. If you like bread, you have to try this!

Oh! And you should know that if you use Bittman's crust recipe, you make the whole thing in the food processor and only have to let it rise (no kneading). You know what...forget looking it up, I will share the ingredients and two attempts worth of wisdom with you here.:)

Dump all of the following into your food processor:

3 c flour

1 tsp rapid rise yeast

2 tsp course salt

Turn the machine on to mix and gradually add 1 c water and 2 Tbsp olive oil to the food processor

Bittman says that it takes about 30 seconds to form a ball. I've found that it works faster than that. If all of the dough isn't coming together, add a bit more water.


That's it...turn it out onto a floured surface and fold it over a couple of times. Then put it in a bowl greased with olive oil to rise for about an hour. For the pan fried pizzas, I break this into 4 lumps and let them sit a bit more before shaping them into disks slightly smaller than the pan with my hands.

If you don't have a food processor, you'll just have to do a bit more kneading...check out Bittman's recipe from my last post or buy the pizza dough pre-made.:)


To pan fry dough disks, put a some olive oil in a pan (Bittman suggests nonstick. I used cast iron.) and turn the heat to medium. Wait for the pan to heat up then put the first dough disk in. It should take 3-4 minutes per side. Once the first side is all browned and nice, flip it over and put your toppings on top. Obviously the whole thing is done when the bottom finishes.


Like I said, I think it's easier to use precooked toppings. However, if you want to melt/cook the toppings just put the cover on the pan while you cook the second side or finish it off under your broiler (which I do not have).:)



Oh man! We're having this again tonight!



(By the way, Bittman makes all his breads in the food processor this way. I've had good luck with his baguette recipe as well... only there is no way to make it without an oven.)

Stovetop Pizza

This broken oven thing isn't going well for me. It seems like I can never make any of the things I want to make. I've tried making coffee cake in a skillet on the stove top (dry...and I got impatient, turned the heat too high, and burned it in the middle). I've even made meat loaf on the stovetop (a wonderful success...so moist!). A couple of nights ago when I was scrounging for food for dinner, Mark suggested that I make seasoned potato wedges..."You mean those potatoes I make in the oven?" "Oh. Yeah." I made pasta with zucchini, white wine, and herbs instead. But I've been craving these awesome pita pizzas that I made a couple of times a long time ago (You know, when I had a working oven). I got the recipe last time I visited Josh and Cindy in Chicago from one of Cindy's cooking magazines. I think it went something like this:

Top half a pita sliced lengthwise with hummus, sliced red peppers, ground lamb (uncooked), artichoke hearts, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Bake.

I'm telling you, these sound good...but they are great...fantastic...amazing. Every time I have them, I want them again...and fast!

But no oven....

So...tonight I'm going to try making a variation...stovetop pizza. I'll make a pizza dough and pan-fry it in a cast iron skillet (kinda like grilled pizza...I learned this from Mark Bittman. Check out the technique here. He even has a video.) but I'll top it with hummus and sauteed red peppers and artichokes with ground spicy sausage (Giant Eagle didn't have lamb, and I didn't feel like making another trip). I'm guessing I won't need black pepper. Sound good? I hope so. I'll let you know how it turns out.
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I'm sorta wondering if anyone is reading this...is anyone reading this?