Posts in Category: Bread Recipes
Oatmeal Bread
Oatmeal Timeline 3:20
Old fashion rolled oats give this bread body with a wonderful chew. An excellent sandwich bread toasted, grilled or as French toast.
Don’t add more flour too quickly. As the oats absorb the milk, the dough will firm up. Hand knead the dough into a nice ball before the ferment. As this dough is firm, it requires a long ferment and proof.
Lux White Bread
Lux White Timeline 4:25
This is a luxurious white bread. It has a soft crumb and a wonderful crisp crust created by an olive oil wash. It is quickly becoming a favourite in my house. This recipe comes with a variety of choices. For the fat, you may use vegetable oil, olive oil, butter or vegetable shortening. For sweetness, try honey, sugar or maple syrup. Side note, I live on a working maple syrup farm in Canada so syrup is a way of life with us. And last, for milk, use whole or evaporated.
This is not a complicated recipe and the steps are not time consuming. Most of the timeline is waiting for fermenting, proofing and baking. Your choice of fat and sweetener will impact how much flour you need. If the dough does not form a ball on the mixer hook then add some flour. Not too much. I do it a heaping tablespoon at a time. This dough can easily get too firm.
Potato Bread
Stout Beer Oat Bread
Stout Beer Oat Timeline 4:35
Guinness Draught beer is an Irish dry stout. It is described as “Mahogany brown with creamy white head; coffee, toasted malt and hops aromas; medium to full body, creamy smooth flavour and nice touch of bitterness to finish.” My beer bread has tended to be based on India Pale Ales. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to develop a bread around a stout. If you love the taste of stout, you can make my Beer Bread recipe. I wanted something with a bit more body to live up to the beer’s strong flavour so I decided to add oats. The brown sugar gives some sweetness while the butter softens up the crumb.
Honey-Oat Pullman Bread – Pain de Mie
Honey Oat Timeline 4:35
This recipe is a delicious near crustless bread made in a pullman pan called Pain de Mie. “Pain” in French means “bread”, and “la mie” refers to the soft part of bread, called the crumb. The size is just larger than a slice of cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich. The bread was also excellent for French toast.
I love baking pans and the Pullman pan is my favourite. The Pullman pan was originally invented for baking bread in the pullman car of a train. The pan fits in a rack maximizing production for such a small oven. The slices are all uniform in size with virtually no crust and were sometimes called the “sandwich loaf” or “pan bread.” The challenge with this recipe is to use the right amount of dough, since the rise has to fit exactly. Too little and the top has a gap, too much and it squeezes out the ends. This recipe does not have a strong rise so it works well with a Pullman pan. When making it with a regular loaf pan use a smaller pan than you expect and do NOT score the dough. This dough has little oven spring.
Sponge Method Challah Bread
Timeline 3:40
Challah is a classic braided egg bread and a crowd pleaser. Challah has become a favourite of mine for occasions. The eggs and butter create a yummy chew. There are many ways to braid the dough from a basic pan to a three strand, round to even a bowl. Don’t let a fear of braiding hold you back.
Beer Bread Recipe
Timeline 4:40
Beer like bread share common ingredients: water, yeast and grain. This recipe is a lean bread with a pre-ferment of the yeast with some flour and water to give the yeast time to break down the flour. Most of the taste is derived though from the beer. The recipe is designed to use a standard 12 ounce bottle of beer. The beer should be room temperature to not slow down the yeast.
