Pita Bread

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've made pita bread and it shows. I forgot that thinness is important or they don't puff. My first batch were whole wheat pita's from the King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking cookbook (gift from David from my B-day), only two puffed. Determined to get this right I went to a recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads that I've made in the past. No such luck. Only one puffed nicely and the other semi-puffed. At least I captured pictures of the two that puffed nicely. It's hard to tell from the picture, the one in the oven is the whole wheat pita.



Whole Wheat Pita Bread
1 3/4 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 C unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 C lukewarm water
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine all of the ingredients, and mix and knead them together—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a smooth dough. This will take about 8 minutes by hand, 5 minutes in an electric mixer, or use the dough setting on your bread machine. Cover the dough, and allow it to rise till it’s doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes. Place a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven. Or line a baking sheet with parchment (or grease it lightly). Preheat the oven to 450°F. Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into eight pieces, shaping each piece into a rough ball. Let the balls rest for 10 minutes, covered, while your oven comes up to temperature. Lightly spray a rolling mat, or clean work surface, with non-stick vegetable oil spray. Use a rolling pin to roll one ball of dough into a 6" circle that’s slightly less than 1/4" thick. Repeat with another ball of dough. Place the pitas on the hot pizza stone, or place them on the prepared baking sheet, and put the baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the pitas for 4 to 5 minutes, till they puff up. Turn them over, and bake for another minute or two; total baking time should be about 6 minutes (about 7 minutes, if you’re baking on a pan rather than a stone). Remove them from the oven, stack them on a kitchen towel, and fold the towel up over them; this will keep them from becoming crisp as they cool. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.



Pita Bread
2 1/2 C bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
1 C lukewarm water

In a large mixing bowl, measure 1 C flour and stir in the dry ingredients. Add the oil and water. Beat vigorously with a spoon for 2-3 mins. Stir in balance of flour 1/2 C at a time. The dough should be a rough, shaggy mass that will cling to the sides of the bowl. If the dough is moist, add a small amount of additional flour. Turn the dough onto a slightly flour surface and knead for 6 mins.

Preheat the oven to 500 F. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and shape into a ball. Cover the dough with a clean cloth and allow to rest for 20 mins. \

Flatten the dough into a round disk. finish with a rolling pin and roll them into 6 inch diameter and 3/16 inch thick. Place each piece of dough on a 7 inch square of aluminum foil. Carefully place 2 to 3 breads on the oven shelf. Bake for 8 mins, or until puffed. Remove breads from the oven and wrap in a large piece of foil. Repeat with remaining disks.

Cinnamon Date Pecan Swirl Bread

Since I came back from my trip, I haven't been baking much. I think I was still exhausted from the holiday baking and just sick of sweets and chocolate. Any baking I have done has been breakfast foods. Some bluberry scones and white chocolate cherry scones for my sister and nephew when they came to visit one weekend in January and loaf of cinnamon swirl bread with dates and pecans.

I came back from Vietnam with kilos and kilos of candy and some dried fruit. Why the dried fruit? They were all natural and tasted so much better than the packaged dried fruits you get in the states. And oh so cheap which was a bonus. The original recipe for the cinnamon swirl bread is from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. I modified it ever so slighly by adding chopped dates and pecans. I have never made any breads with dates since they are not my favorite but I was quite happy with this loaf. The dates added a nice moistness to the bread and tasted great with the pecans. I pretty much love anything with strudel so this bread is a winner. I used potato flakes rather than potato flour which works just fine. I usually have to add a couple of tablespoons of water to the 1 C. the recipe calls for.

Cinnamon Date Pecan Swirl Bread

Dough
3 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 C. potato flour or 1/3 c. potato flakes
1/4 C. nonfat dried milk
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 tbsp. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
4 tbsp. butter
1 C. water

Filling
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 C. dates
2 tsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
Egg wash, made form1 large egg beaten with 1 tbsp. water

Topping
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 C. unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough: In a large bowl, combine all the dough ingredients, mixing until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the bowl. Knead for ~10 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

Filling: Pulse filling ingredients except the egg wash in a food processor.

Topping: In small bowl or mini food processor, combine all the ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Don't over process if you use a food processor or you end up wiht a lumpy mass.

When the dough is ready, roll the dough into a 16 x 8 inch rectangle on a lightly oiled work surface. Brush the dough with some of the egg wash (save rest for later) and pat the filling gently onto the dough. The original recipe says to roll the dough starting from the short edge into a log, pinch the side seams and ends close. I split the rectangle into 3 parts and roll them into small logs and form a braided loaf. Place the log in a slightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (I used 9 x 5 inch loaf pan). Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap adn allow to rise at room temperature for 1 hr or until it's crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan. Preheat the oven to 350 F during the last few mintues of rising time. When the dough has risen, brush the top of the loaf with some of the egg wash and gently press on the topping. Bake for about 45 minutes. For the 9 x 5 inch pan, I baked the loaf for 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes than remove the loaf from the pan. Best eaten warm.

Banana Bread

I had some very brown bananas in my fridge that my mother left when she visited over the Memorial Day weekend. Reading my Runner's World magazine on route to Halifax, I came across a recipe for banana bread from Joanne Chang, the pastry chef and owner of the Flour Bakery and Cafe in Boston. It is the best recipe that I have tried yet. For a while I've been making the banana bread from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion cookbook, but I like this much more. The high ratio of bananas to flour makes a very moist bread. I made the low fat version of the recipe which was also provided. I used my Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan which usually results in a longer baking time. I had to bake it 10 minutes longer than directed. Since I've been on a strudel kick, I made a strudel topping taken from Robin Hood Flour's recipe for Banana Crunch Bread. I substituted the coconut with chopped walnuts. Thank goodness I run! Otherwise, I would not be baking all these goodies.

Flour's Famous Banana Bread

1 2/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C. vegetable oil (or 1/4 C. vegetable oil and 1/4 C. unsweetened applesauce)
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tbsp low-fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 C. walnuts, toasted and chopped

Strudel Topping

1/4 C. chopped walnuts
1/4 C. brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the strudel topping and set aside. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Beat the sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy. Drizzle in the oil (and add the applesauce for low fat version). Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture and nuts. Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 4 inch loaf pan and sprinkle with the strudel topping. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Weekend of Baking

Free at Last! I finished my last final on Tuesday so now I can resume a semi-normal life. I told David, my significant other, that I am going to bake (and cook) up a storm the next couple of months (taking a summer class in July). I have a number of recipes from my cookbooks and recipes that I found on the Internet that I want to make.

My baking this weekend started out on the wrong note. David said he missed dessert the other night so I said I would bake him a cake. I decided to bake the "Wacky Cake" as I have been meaning to try it. The "Wacky Cake" is an eggless cake, leavened with baking soda and distilled vinegar. What a disaster! I baked the cake in my new bundt pan that bought a couple of months ago off of Ebay. I mentioned to David after I took the cake out of the oven that it didn't look like it rose much. I made a chocolate ganche frosting for the cake anyway. Later that evening, we had the cake for dessert. Yuck! It was so incredibly dry. We ate the chocolate ganche and tossed the pieces of cake. David ended up eating ice cream for dessert.

I googled "Wacky Cake" this morning and think I know where I went wrong after browsing different versions of the cake. Too much flour, not enough vinegar, or water. I found a recipe on www.epicurious.com that I am going to try next weekend. In the mean time, I cheated and made a Duncan Hines yellow cake with chocolate frosting. No time to make a cake from scratch this morning.

However, I did make a loaf of peanut butter and jelly bread for breakfast. I made the dough in my bread machine. Threw all the ingredients in my bread maker and went out for my morning run. I shaped the bread after my run, allowed it to rise a second time, and bake it. In between I stretched and took a took shower too! This recipe is from Bread Baking with Father Dominic, a PBS show. I don't think it is around anymore (at least not in the DC area). I printed the recipe for the dough off of his website a few years ago. The website doesn't exist anymore either. I modified the recipe slightly by adding jelly and peanut butter chips.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread

3/4 C. luke warm milk
1/4 C. luke warm water (may need a 1 or 2 teaspoons of additional water)
1/3 C. peanut Butter
1 tsp salt
3 C. all-purpose flour 1/3 C. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast
1/2 C. grape jelly or jam
1/2 C. peanut butter chips

To make the dough:
Bread machine instructions: add the flour, salt, sugar, yeast. Allow to mix for a couple of minutes, add the peanut butter, milk, and water.

By hand: Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a bowl. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes, or until foamy. Stir in the warm milk. Add the sugar, salt, and flour. Stir until you get a soft manageable dough. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 6 to 8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and allow to rise for 1 hour.

After the first rising, roll out the dough into a large rectangle, about 18 X 12 inches. Spread the grape jelly on the dough. Sprinkle with peanut butter chips. Roll the dough tightly until you have a jelly roll shape. Pinch the ends to seal the dough, place the dough seam side down in an oiled 9 x 5 inch pan. I usually roll the dough into 3 small rectangles, roll the rectangles, and form a braided loaf. Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm, draft free spot or until double in size. Bake the bread in preheated oven at 350F for 40 minutes.

It is best to allow the loaf to cool before slicing into it.