Guest Post: Oatmeal Molasses Brown Bread Recipe

I'm so excited - not only did Joey find a recipe and make it completely on its own, but he wrote up what he did so I could put it on the blog. This is what he did:

I decided to make bread for us somewhat out of the blue last night.  Looking over one of the bread recipes that I knew was easy enough for me to handle (the sea salt focaccia) I found a link to this new brown bread.  After a quick perusal of the recipe I decided that it sounded good and was simple enough that I could handle it.

Following the recipe exactly (since I certainly don't know enough about baking to change things on the fly), I added all the liquids to the mixer and began adding the flour.  After adding the first 3 cups of flour it was immediately apparent that I would need a lot more flour.  I had measured out an additional 1.5 cups of flour to add in little by little, but quickly ended up using the entire 1.5 cups.  The dough was still very wet and sticky, so I continued to add in flour until it pulled away from the sides of the mixer and formed a nice ball.  I ended up using 5.5 cups of flour minus 1 tbsp.

From here it was easy, just took the dough out of the mixer and formed it into a ball, then placed that into a metal bowl that had been sprayed with oil.  I covered it with a tea towel and placed it in the oven with the light on to keep things warm.  Two hours later I had a nice big ball of dough.  Hard to say if it was 'doubled', but it looked big enough to me so I proceeded with the rest of the recipe.

I separated the dough into two pieces by hand as best as I could.  I know they weren't even, but it was close so I figured that everything would be fine.  At Jen's suggestion i flattened out the dough balls (each one separately) into a rough square and then rolled them up and placed them into loaf pans (sprayed with oil already).  Placing these back into the oven to rise again I let them rise for another hour.

Again, they were supposed to double in size but it's a bit tricky to judge the volume of a rolled up log of dough in a loaf pan.  I deemed them 'good enough' and removed them from the oven where they were rising so I could heat it up.  Putting them in the oven, they spent 42 min at 350 degrees before I took them out to check.  Both loaves registered internal temperatures of just over 200 degrees F (which Jen tells me means they are done), so I took them out to rest before removing from the pan.

Now it's time to make a sandwich and see if my experiment worked.

I used the bread for my own sandwich, and definitely liked it. We didn't like it as much as our typical honey wheat, maybe because of the texture (a little dense) or because it has a slightly stronger flavor. I think that using a little more yeast next time would help with the texture, to make it more similar to the fluffy wheat bread. Of course I forgot to take any pictures, of either loaf! Check out the site we got the recipe from - ours looked pretty similar, just not as fluffy

From: Older Mommy Still Yummy

Yield: 2 loaves (~15 slices per loaf)

Ingredients:

3 tsp active dry yeast (will use 4 tsp next time)

1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 F)

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses

2 tsp salt

1 cup rolled (old fashioned) oats

5-6 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl (stand-mixer), add the yeast and honey to the warm water, let sit until creamy and bubbly. 

Affix paddle attachment to mixer and add the butter, sugar, egg and molasses, mix well.

Affix dough hook and add 4 cups of the flour, salt and rolled oats, mix well.

Gradually add only enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that cleans the sides of the bowl when mixing. 

Using the dough hook attachment, knead for 10 minutes, until dough is soft but not sticky. Continue to add flour if the dough is still sticky. 

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place in a warm spot (the oven with the light on works well). 

Let rise until the dough doubles in size, 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

Meanwhile, spray two 9x5" pans with nonstick cooking spray. 

Remove dough from bowl to a clean cutting board dusted with flour, and divide dough into two pieces. Shape each piece into a rectangular shape, and roll up tightly, starting with the short end. Place each log into a greased pan. 

Cover pans and return to warm place until once again doubled in size, approximately 1/2 - 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F (if rising in oven, take pans out of oven before turning oven on!) and fill a small ovenproof dish halfway with water. 

When dough has doubled in size, place both pans of bread and the dish of water in the oven. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden and hollow sounding when tapped. If you have a thermometer, the bread should read at 190-200 F. 

Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for 15-20 minutes. Then remove the loaves to a rack to finish cooling. Wait until the bread has cooled completely before slicing. 

Easy Herb Focaccia (great for sandwiches!)

For a while, I've been making homemade bread for our sandwiches every week, alternating between honey wheat, sundried tomato parmesan, and jalapeno cheddar. On New Year's, Joey decided he wanted focaccia, and made it for snacking. We made one round loaf and one square loaf, and realized that it was pretty great for sandwiches. It was really light and fluffy, but still very sturdy.

The past month, we've been making two square (8x8) focaccias for sandwiches for the week. We just cut each one into quarters, and then slice them in half. You can even make sandwiches for a crowd - just add all of your fillings, press them down a bit, and then cut them up however you want. I've found that any combination of herbs works well. We like putting some dried rosemary into the actual dough, as well as putting a combination of herbs on top.



Recipe: Easy Herb Focaccia
Slightly adapted from Older Mommy Still Yummy
Yield: 2 loaves (enough for 8 sandwiches)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups warm water (105-115 F)
3 tbsp olive oil (plus more for drizzling)
1.5 tbsp honey
4.5 tsp active dry yeast (2 packets)
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (plus more if needed)
2 tsp salt
Fresh or dried herbs (sage, thyme and rosemary all work really well)
Sea salt

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, oil, honey and yeast. Give it a stir so the yeast is mixed in. Let sit until really foamy. (If that doesn't happen, you'll have to start over. Either your yeast is expired, or the water was too hot and killed it.) Add the flour and mix on low-medium speed, then add in the salt. Mix for 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic, but not sticky. Add more flour as necessary, 1-2 tbsp at a time.

Grease a large bowl, and put the dough in it, turning to coat with oil. Cover, and let rise in warm place for 50-60 minutes. Punch down, and divide dough into two pieces. Grease two 8x8 or 9x9 square pans. Put each half of dough in the prepared pans, and push down so it fills the entire pan. Cover pans, and let rise for 30 minutes. Using your fingertips, push down and "dimple" the dough. Lightly drizzle with olive oil, and top with herbs and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cover and let rise for an additional 30 minutes.

In the last 10 minutes of rising, turn the oven to 400 F. Bake bread for 20-30 minutes - you want the internal temperature to register at least 190 F, and you want the top to be golden brown. Once done, immediately remove the bread from the pans - otherwise the heat creates steam, and the bottoms get soft/soggy. Let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

If planning on using within 2 days, it can be kept at room temperature in a sealed container. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week, or frozen (well wrapped) for longer storage.

Nutrition:
One serving = 1/4 loaf, or 1/8 of the entire recipe
265 calories
6.8 g fat
44.5 g carbs
1.9 g fiber
3.2 g sugar
6.8 g protein

Birthday Dinner

Yesterday was Joey's birthday! Because his birthday happens to fall on the same day as a holiday endorsed by Hallmark, it has been a sad day for him in the past. Imagine having a girlfriend who wants to "move your birthday to a different day," just so she can get flowers and chocolate on a day that's supposed to be your special day, and then your birthday is just forgotten. Once he told me about all of this, I vowed to make February 14th his birthday only, with no focus AT ALL on cupid or sappy pink and red things. He usually finds a way to surprise me earlier in the week - I think our first year together, he managed to get me two bouquets of flowers, on his actual birthday. I may have yelled at him, so he bought me flowers the day before, last year. There may have been more yelling, so this year he got me flowers a full week before...with the excuse that they were really for turning in my paper to my committee.

Anyway, this is all my way of saying that I try my best to make the entire day (or weekend) about Joey, since he deserves it. This year he gave me a bunch of things that he wanted for his birthday dinner, and I tried my best to accomplish them.

The first was a steak. He started out by sending me this link for making the perfect steak, hint hint. He also wanted roasted garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and cauliflower, a mushroom and blue cheese sauce for the steak, dinner rolls, and some kind of dessert. At first he thought he wanted Smitten Kitchen's peanut butter and chocolate cake (one is his roommates made it for him last year and it was insane), but changed his mind to bread pudding, any kind, as long as it had chocolate. (That recipe is coming soon)

I followed the Buzzfeed article 100%, and he was really happy with the steak! He handled the mashed potatoes - we cut two large-ish russet potatoes into bite-sized pieces, boiled them until they were tender, and then mashed with some butter, almond milk, a touch of half and half, the roasted garlic, and salt and pepper of course. He also handled the green beans and cauliflower - he sauteed some spices in butter and oil, then added the veggies with soy sauce and water, and covered the pan to let them cook until tender.

While he was doing that, I also pulled together the mushroom sauce and the rolls. I just made up the sauce - I sliced ~1 lb of white and cremini mushrooms, and cooked in 1 tbsp of butter, with some salt and pepper. Once they started to get caramelized, I added another tbsp of butter, a sprinkle of flour, and ~1/3 cup of almond milk. I cooked until it thickened up, and then added ~1/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese. I was afraid that I had added too much flour and that it was gluey, and while it did sort of look gluey, it did not taste it! It was delicious - Joey put it on top of his steak, and I put it on top of the mashed potatoes.

For the rolls, I actually have a real recipe for you to follow. They were delicious - really flavorful from the herbs, and super soft.

Herb Dinner Rolls
Adapted from Food Gal

Ingredients:
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup cool water
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp table salt
1 tbsp (each) of green onions (the top parts), rosemary, parsley and thyme
3 tbsp butter, melted and divided
1 egg
1 cup milk (use whatever milk you have on hand - I've used both unsweetened vanilla almond milk and unsweetened coconut almond milk)
3 1/4 cups bread flour

Directions:
Sprinkle the yeast over the water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand 5 minutes. Using the dough hook attachment, mix together the sugar, salt, herbs, 2 tbsp melted butter, egg, and almond milk. Add to the yeast, stir to combine. Add flour gradually, with the mixer on low. Once the flour is mostly absorbed, turn up speed to medium, and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5-7 minutes. If it sticks to the bottom, add more flour, 1 tbsp at a time.

Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Take out the dough and shape it into a ball, put it in the bowl and turn to coat with spray. Cover with a tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size. Punch down and divide into 12 pieces (mine were each 2.75 oz). Brush 1/2 tbsp of the melted butter on the sides and bottom of a 9x13 pan. Shape each of the pieces into a ball that is slightly flattened, and space out evenly in the pan. Brush with the remaining 1/2 tbsp of butter. Cover with a tea towel, and let rise 30-40 minutes in a warm place, until they have almost completely filled the pan. Toward the end of the rise, turn the oven to 350 F. If you are using your oven to let the rolls rise, wait until you've taken them out before you turn the oven on!

Bake 25-30 minutes, until deep golden brown and internal temperature registers at 190-200 F. Brush with more melted butter (if desired), and enjoy while warm!

Notes: These rolls were so good! Once baked and cooled, you can freeze and reheat - I would recommend first in the microwave, and then in the toaster. Use whatever herbs you have on hand - you could even add some cheese if you really wanted. Since you don't use any warm water, make sure to put the dough in a very warm place when they are rising - I turn the oven on for a minute or two, turn it back off, and then put the dough in the warmed oven, covered with a towel. I put the oven light on also, to keep it even warmer.
They also can be mostly prepped in advance - once the dough balls have been put in the pan, you can put it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Then let them come to room temperature, covered, and let them rise until they have filled the pan. Cook as directed above.

This was my first time making rolls this way, and I loved how easily they pulled apart from each other!

Before...

...and after being cooked

The awesome pillowy rolls

Joey's full plate (green beans and cauliflower on the side)

My full plate (I made some roasted shrimp for myself)

Fluffy perfection

Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Sandwich Bread

I have made five loaves of this bread in the past few weeks. It is just so good! The flavor combination is amazing, and the bread is a beautiful color. I've found that the recipe can be doubled pretty easily, but you'll probably have to knead by hand once the dough comes together. It was a bit too much dough for my stand mixer.
If making two loaves, wrap the extra in foil and put in the freezer - the foil holds in the moisture.

Recipe: Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Sandwich Bread
Adapted slightly from Completely Delicious
Yield: 15-16 slices per loaf

Ingredients:
10 halves sun-dried tomatoes
Hot water
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp herbs de provence
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 package)

Directions:
Cover sun-dried tomatoes with hot water and let soak for 2 hours. Drain, reserving soaking water.

Combine 1 cup of the tomato water with the yogurt in a small pot, heat until steaming. Stir to combine, and let cool until 120-130 F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add 2 cups of the flour, the salt, sugar, herbs de provence, parmesan cheese, and yeast. Add the yogurt mixture, and use the dough hook to mix well. Add the tomatoes. Add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, while mixing on medium-low, until the dough clears the bowl. You want the dough to be tacky, but not sticky. Knead for a total of 5-7 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Put the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled. Gently punch down the dough and knead a few times.

Roll the dough into a rough 7x14 inch rectangle. Starting with a short end, roll up tightly, and pinch the ends closed. Put it, seam-side down, in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Let rise 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above the sides of the pan. Bake until golden brown and an instant-read thermometer registers 190-200 F, about 25-30 minutes. Remove loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing (it slices really well once refrigerated).

Enjoying a delicious egg sandwich on our homemade bread!

Rosemary and (33 cloves of) Roasted Garlic Bread

 After making the no-knead bread that we cooked in the dutch oven, Joey wanted to try making other similar breads. He found a recipe for a bread that also included roasted garlic and rosemary - um how can you go wrong there? This was modeled after the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe, which I've made in the past. When we were going to be making it, my job was to start roasting the garlic as soon as I got home from lab. I asked Joey how much garlic he wanted, since at the time, we just had a giant bag (from Sam's Club) of peeled cloves. His exact words were - a bunch, err on the large side. I just picked the first number that came to my mind, and said okay, 30? He said to go with that, and jokingly added, that if he counted only 29, he was going to make me do it over. With that, I responded - for that, I'm doing 33. Once I got home, I actually counted out 33 cloves, and roasted them until they were mellow and sweet. And we used every single one of them in the bread.

To make the bread, Joey followed the instructions from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day website, which said to pull off a 1lb chunk of the dough. It turned out that 1lb of dough isn't quite half, so the first loaf was much smaller than the second. The first loaf also didn't have nearly as many garlic cloves - whoops! At first we thought they must have just disintegrated into the dough, but once we cooked the second loaf a few days later, we saw where they all went!

Recipe: Rosemary and Roasted Garlic Bread
Adapted slightly from Noble Pig
Yield: 2 loaves of bread

Ingredients:
33 cloves of garlic (use less if you don't love garlic as much as we do. Although, why would you be making this recipe if you don't love garlic?)
olive oil
2 tbsp active dry yeast
3 cups lukewarm water
5 1/2 cups (29.3 oz) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
Cornmeal

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 F. Make a pouch out of heavy duty foil (or make a double layer out of regular foil). Put the garlic in the pouch, drizzle with olive oil, and close up tightly. Put in the oven and cook for 45 minutes, or until golden and a fork easily goes through them. Let cool slightly.

In a large (very large) container, mix water and yeast together. Add flour, salt, roasted garlic and rosemary. Stir with a wooden spoon, use your hands as necessary to fully mix together. Cover the container and set in a warm place to rise for at least 3 hours. At this time, put in the refrigerator overnight - the dough is easier to work with when cold.

When ready to bake, put a metal baking pan on the bottom of the oven. Fill it with water. Put a pizza stone on a rack set in the middle or top third of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F, the water and stone will heat up during this time.

Sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal. Sprinkle the dough and your hands with flour. Divide the dough into two loaves (or you can just pull out half of the dough and bake the other half later), shaping each into a ball. Place on the pizza peel and let rest for 30 minutes. Right before placing in the oven, score the tops of the balls with either an X or several cuts - this will prevent the bottom of the loaf from splitting.

Use the pizza peel to (carefully!) slide the dough right onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

First loaf

Second loaf

Challah - three versions

This post is really overdue. We Joey made two types of challah for Rosh Hashanah, and they were amazing. He decided he wanted to make challah again over the weekend, mostly so we could use it to make a baked french toast (recipe coming).

For Rosh Hashanah, the focus was obviously on apples and honey. The challah itself has a lot of honey in it. We put apples in one of the loaves, and rum soaked raisins in the other. Last weekend, we did one with the rum soaked raisins, and one plain. He also experimented with several different methods of braiding.

Here is the main recipe, with notes at the bottom on how to make the apple and raisin variations.

Recipe: Honey Challah, Three Ways
Slightly adapted from: Shiksa in the Kitchen
Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, divided
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup honey
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp salt
5-7 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup of the warm water (about 110 F) in a large mixing bowl. Wait 10 minutes, or until it expands and looks foamy.

Once yeast is activated, add remaining water, egg, egg yolks, honey, oil, vanilla and salt. Whisk until everything is thoroughly combined.

Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, using a large wooden spoon to mix. Once mixture is too thick to stir, start using your hands (warning - you'll get messy). Continue to add flour and mix until you get a smooth and elastic dough ball that isn't too sticky. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times.

Put the dough back into a large lightly greased bowl (you can wash out the bowl you just mixed it in and use that), and turn it so all sides are coated. Cover with a damp, clean kitchen towel. In the oven (that is turned off!), put the bowl with the dough on the top rack, and a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack. Close the oven door (and do not turn it on!) and let it rise for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, punch the dough down to remove air pockets, and then put it back in the oven for another hour. The dough should double in size during this last rise.

Lightly flour a large surface, and put out half of the dough. Keep the other half of the dough in the bowl, covered by the towel. Cut the half that you have out into 3 equal portions. Roll each one until they are 16-18 inches long with tapered ends. Connect the three ends together, and braid as you would braid your hair - outside strands over the middle strand. Once you reach the end, connect the ends together.

Once the loaf has been braided, place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and let the loaf rise for 30-45 minutes longer, or until slightly puffy. (At this point, you can make the second loaf.)

Prepare egg wash by mixing egg with water and salt until all combined. Lightly brush the loaf with the egg wash, and bake for 20 minutes. Take the loaf out of the oven, and re-brush with the egg wash, making sure to get the newly exposed parts of the bread. Put back into the oven for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 190-200 F. Let it cool slightly before slicing (or ripping off pieces).

Apple Variation:
When the dough is in the second rise, chop 3 large apples. If desired, mix with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon, although this may make the dough a bit soggy. With each half of the dough, divide into 4 equal portions instead of 3. Stretch each portion into a rough rectangle - about 16 inches long, and 3 inches wide. Put some of the apples into the center of the rectangle, leaving about a 1/2 inch border. Don't transfer any of the liquid from the bottom of a bowl. Gently roll the upper edge of the rectangle toward the lower edge, and pinch to seal. Gently roll it out so it is smooth, with tapered ends. Repeat with three remaining portions. Follow these instructions for braiding. The rest of the instructions are the same, however it might take a bit longer to cook because of the apples inside. Repeat with the second loaf. You can also top with cinnamon sugar after adding the egg wash, before baking, but this makes it a bit messy to cut.

Raisin Variation:
While the dough is in the second rise, mix together 2 cups raisins with 1/2 cup spiced rum in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture starts boiling. Stir together, then cover with plastic wrap and let cool. Drain before using, then add to the 4 dough portions in the same method as the apples.

Round braided loaf with raisins inside

Regular braided loaf - plain

You can see the swirls of raisins!

Our lovely friend, being silly with the challah :)

The Rosh Hashanah loaves - raisin on the left, apple on the right

The raisin challah on the left was braided with the circle method shown here

Two loaves = 1

Pretzel Rolls and Double-Bean Burgers

I'm finally getting to recipes I made over a week ago!

When Stef was here, we made pretzel rolls and double-bean veggie burgers. I had made both of these before (the pretzel rolls I've made many times actually), so I wasn't worried about how they would turn out. They were super tasty, as usual :) This is a really filling vegetarian meal, and really healthy as well.

Recipe: Double Bean Burgers
Adapted slightly from How Sweet It Is
Yield: 5-6 burgers

Ingredients:
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can white beans (great northern or cannellini), drained and rinsed
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I couldn't find plain at Kroger so I used Italian seasoned)
3 tbsp olive oil, divided


Directions:
In a large bowl, mash beans with a potato masher or fork. Add in garlic, paprika, onion powder, salt and pepper, mixing to combine. In a smaller bowl, lightly beat eggs and add in 1 tbsp olive oil, and the panko, stirring to mix. Add the egg mixture to the beans, and mix thoroughly to combine, bringing it together with your hands if needed. Separate the beans into 6 equal sections and form patties. (Note - I ended up with 5 good-sized burgers. Also, I recommend doing this on plastic wrap or parchment paper, they can get kind of sticky.)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Add two burgers at a time and cook on each side until golden, about 5 minutes. Remove and serve with avocado cream on whole wheat buns.

Avocado Cream:
Ingredients:
2/3 cup greek yogurt
1 avocado, chopped
10 medium basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

Directions:
Add basil and avocado to a food processor, blending to combine. Once somewhat smooth, add in greek yogurt and blend until completely smooth. Add in salt and pepper, taste, and season more if desired.

Recipe: Pretzel Rolls
Adapted from Annie's Eats and Alton Brown
Yield: 7 rolls (plus a little extra)

Ingredients:
Pretzel Dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 F)
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
22 oz all purpose flour (about 4.5 cups)
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

To Finish:
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp water
Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions:
Combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to dissolve the yeast. Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large pot. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate it. Divide into 5 oz portions. (If you have any extra, make a mini pretzel or mini roll) Form each portion into a ball, and then flatten it into a disc ~1 inch thick. Let rest for 10 minutes on parchment paper lined pans, covered with plastic wrap. Working with 1 or 2 at a time, drop in boiling water. Boil each batch for 30 seconds per side, or a total of 1 minute if the boiling water turns them over automatically.

Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and spread out on the prepared baking sheets. Once all have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. Slice and top with burger.

Note - both the burgers and the rolls can be frozen before cooked. After forming the burgers, put them on a parchment paper lined baking tray and put them in the freezer until they are solid. Transfer to freezer bags. To cook, microwave for 1 minute before cooking them on the stove as directed. Do the same with the rolls - and cook them exactly as directed above. You may need to add a few minutes to the baking time.

Recipe: Slow-Rise Crusty Bread

For a long time now, I've seen recipes on blogs for a super simple crusty artisan bread that is just dumped into a hot dutch oven. It's one of those things that I've said I'll try one day, but I've never gotten around to making it.

Last week, Joey pointed out something he found online that he'd like to try. I think it was originally from a fb post, someone's summary of an easy to make crusty bread. I did some searching and found that it was from a food blog I follow, and better yet, the exact recipe I had pinned many months ago. Joey said he really wanted to try it, so I read the recipe a few times (as well as the forum for the many questions that came from that recipe - it seriously has thousands of comments!) and then made a plan. Originally, I was going to mix up the dough Saturday night, then bake it on Sunday so we could have it with dinner. It has a 12-18 hour rise, so this would work out well. But....I forgot to mix up the dough Saturday night! Whoops

Plans were changed, and we mixed up the dough together Sunday night, then planned on having it with dinner Monday night. It's a bit of a process on baking day, so we had the bread as a kind of after dinner snack. It was delicious! It got a really nice crusty exterior (Joey had to saw through it to cut it), with a chewy, sourdough-like interior.

Notes:
I added some fresh herbs to the dough - a few sprigs of thyme and a few sprigs of rosemary. I just pulled off the thyme leaves and put them in whole, and chopped the rosemary.

I used active dry yeast because it's just what I have on hand. I'm thinking of purchasing some SAF instant yeast, since so many people swear by it. I proofed the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, as she said, poured it into the flour, and then added the extra 1 1/4 cup water back to the cup where the yeast was, to rinse it out a bit.

My dough rose for ~21 hours before it was baked. I could tell looking at it, that it had started to deflate a bit. This could account for why we didn't see a huge oven rise.

I baked the bread in my 6.5 quart enameled cast-iron Tramontina dutch oven. The manual says that the lid is heat resistant only to 400 F, probably because the knob looks to be plastic, or at least it is made of a different material. I wrapped the knob with foil, and it worked just fine at 450 F.

Recipe: Slow-Rise Crusty Bread
From: Simply So Good

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast (you can use active-dry if you proof it)
1 3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast. (If you are using active dry yeast, first add the yeast to 1/4 cup warm water, let it sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy, then add it to the flour, with the rest of the water.)
Add the water, and mix until it is a wet shaggy dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside for 12-18 hours.

Preheat oven to 450 F.
Once the oven has preheated, put the dutch oven (with the lid) in the oven. It will probably have to be on the lowest rack, and you might need to pull out any other racks in the oven.

Very liberally flour a surface. Scrape out dough, and gently form into a ball. Don't knead out the air bubbles! Sprinkle flour on top of the ball, and then cover with the plastic wrap that was on the bowl. Let sit 30 minutes.

Open the oven and pull out the rack with the dutch oven on it, and take off the lid. Flour your hands, pick up the dough, and then carefully and quickly drop it into the dutch oven. Be very careful - the dutch oven (and actual oven) is hot!! Put the lid back on, and bake for 30 minutes.

Carefully remove the lid (have some heat pads set up to put it on), bake for another 15 minutes.

Pull out the dutch oven, carefully pull out the bread, and put it on a cooling rack. Let cool (somewhat) before slicing.

Picture Tutorial:

Flour and salt in mixing bowl

Fresh rosemary and thyme from the garden

Herbs added to flour+salt mixture

Yeast and water added - all mixed up

Ready to rise overnight

About 10 hours after being mixed

See all the bubbles??

About 21 hours after being mixed - doesn't it look deflated compared to the 10hr post mixing picture?

Very gently formed into a round-ish shape

General idea of scale. It's a pretty small blob of dough

You can see the holes!

Beautiful loaf of bread

Sliced up

Now you can really see the holes inside!

We also attempted making "cauliflower rice" last night. We basically threw a whole head of cauliflower into the food processor, pulsed until they were in small bits, and then stir fried it in a large pan with a bit of oil. Then we used it as a base for our normal stir-fry of onions, mushrooms and peppers. It was pretty darn good.

"Rice" - before cooking

Stir-fry

Stir-fry, with some baked fish