Bran Bread - High in Fiber and Taste

Whole wheat flour and bran pair up with molasses to produce a substantial loaf that is the basis for grilled cheese sandwiches. peanut butter and jelly, or toast with just plain butter.

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup wheat bran
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups unbleached white flour
3 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water in a medium mixing bowl.  When it starts to bud, add the canola or vegetable oil and molasses.  Stir in the wheat bran plus one cup of the flour.  Stir until well blended.  Add the salt and the additional flour, one cup at a time, stirring after each addition.  When you can no longer stir in more flour and the dough ball starts to form, turn it onto a floured board and knead in the additional flour.  When you have a smoothly kneaded dough ball, place it in a large, oiled bowl.  Cover it with a damp towel and place it in a warm, draft-free place (such as your oven heated to no more than 85 degrees F) for 45 minutes.  When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down with your floured fist and turn it out onto a floured surface.  Knead it for a few minutes.  Then divide the dough in half.  Use a rolling pin to roll each piece of dough into a rectangle about a half inch thick.  Then roll each like a jelly roll, tightly, to form the loaves.  Tuck the ends under each loaf.  Place each one into a greased loaf pan.  Return to the warm place for about 20 minutes, until the loaves have risen to the tops of the pans.  Set the oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until done: the loaves should sound hollow when you tap them on the bottom.

Winning Technique for Bread Baking

A few expert bread-bakers influenced how I make breads.  I use their techniques in almost all of the breads I bake.  I learned a basic bread-baking technique from Mollie Katzen's classic, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.  She offers numerous recipes based on her sponge technique, as well as suggestions for modifying the basic recipe.  The best feature of her section about bread-baking is the exquisitely illustrated and detailed description of how to knead and shape bread dough.  For example, her best suggestion about knowing how much to knead is that the dough should be the consistency of an earlobe when pinched. 

If you are learning how to make bread, I recommend starting with the recipes in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.  Learning Mollie Katzen's techniques will serve you well!

Holiday Bread - A bread for all celebrations

Have the post-New Year's Day blues got you down?  Does it feel like a long winter ahead?  This holiday bread, customarily served with Slovakian Easter dinners, is an excellent mood lifter.  It is buttery enough to be eaten plain, but is also delicious topped with fruit jellies and jams, or cream cheese, or even a slice of ham or Polish sausage.  This recipe is from my husband's family, who brought it with them when they emigrated from Slovakia to the US in the 1800s. 

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
2 beaten eggs, reserving one tablespoon
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour (white flour or white bread flour, or half whole wheat and half white flour)

Scald the milk, then add the butter and sugar.  Stir to dissolve the sugar and butter.  Cool to lukewarm.  Then transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the dissolved yeast in water, the two beaten eggs (less one tablespoon reserved for later), and  vanilla.. Gradually add the flour, one cup a time, stirring after each addition.  When the mixture begins to thicken into a ball, turn it onto a floured surface and knead the rest of the flour into it.  Place the dough ball in a larger oiled mixing bowl.  Cover it with a plate and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (45 - 60 minutes).  Once risen, punch it down with a floured fist, and leave it in the bowl, covered, for a second rise of about 30 minutes until doubled in bulk.  After the second rise, turn it out of the bowl onto a floured surface.  Grease two loaf pans.  Divide the dough in half and shape it into two loaves, placing them into the prepared bread pans.  Let the loaves rise to the tops of the bread pans for another 20 minutes.  Brush the tops of the loaves with the reserved egg.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, or until the breads sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.  (Send them back to the oven in their pans for another few minutes if they do not sound hollow.)

Note: For regular bread, reduce the sugar for 1/4 cup and omit the vanilla.

Fruited Breads Welcome Winter

(Pictured: Apricot Bread)

Dreary days, wind chills, a drafty house all are saying welcome to the New Year.  How to reclaim the start of 2011: Warm up the house with some fruited loaves of bread.  Fruits are excellent additions to quick breads and yeasted breads.  Their flavors and fragrances remind one of spring and summer to come. 

Any pureed or dehydrated fruits will do well in yeasted breads.  Some of my favorites are

• Pureed, cooked apricots
• Oranges, pureed
• Dehydrated cherries or cranberries
• Raisins (with cinnamon)

For quick breads, the addition of pureed, chopped, whole, or dried fruits make wonderful breakfast breads.  Some delicious additions are

• Chopped apples or apple sauce
• Chopped pears or pureed, cooked pears
• Strawberries, whole
• Blueberries or pitted cherries
• Bananas

Where to find spring and summer fruits in January?  Bags of frozen fruits are available year-round at grocery stores.