sourdough oatmeal bread

I obviously bake a lot.  I have been making our daily bread for years.  I found the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown a great learning tool.  I get teased by how many copies I have of it. But there are reasons for that many copies:  it is falling apart, I give it away, I take it every where with us traveling, I take notes in it....

Lately, I have wanted to make oatmeal bread because a bowl of oatmeal has not really settled.  I experimented a bit and this is what I came up with.

Sourdough Oatmeal Bread

sourdough starter

3/4 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 1/2 cup water

1 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

4 - 6 cups flour

The night before, you are going to replenish your starter by mixing the starter, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup flour together in a large bowl.  The bowl needs to be big enough for all the bread dough.

Also, put the oatmeal in a thermos and cover with the 1 1/2 cup water (you can also do this in a bowl wrapped with a towel).

The next morning, take out a couple of tablespoons of the sourdough starter for next time.  Put 1 cup of water in with the starter and the oatmeal.  Mix well.  Add the brown sugar, olive oil, and 3 cups flour.  It should be the consistency of pancake batter.  Let sit about one and half hours.

Add the salt and another two cups of flour.  You should be at the point where it is hard to stir.  Get your hands in there and start kneading.  I then turn the bread out on to the counter and knead some more.  The bread should be fairly smooth when you are done.  Sometimes I knead for ten minutes to release stress but you do not have to.

Cover and let rise for a couple of hours.

Punch down and let rise for one more hour or until double (my house is cold so sometimes that takes many hours)

Grease two loaf pans with butter.

Divide the dough in half.  Shape each half into a loaf and place in a pan.  Cover and let rise one last time for a bout 45 minutes (or in my cold house, until double)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The oatmeal makes it very moist and without this length of baking it will not bake all the way through.

This bead really tastes of oats.  I like it toasted with butter and jam.  I have not tried it as a grilled cheese sandwich because there is no cheese or cheese like substances currently in the house.  I bet it would be fabulous!

Bread really is that easy.  Some patience but easy.  ASK questions and I will help.

Chocolate tallbreads

I promised the chocolate tall breads recipe today and here it is.  It is actually pretty addictive if you use bittersweet chocolate!

Chocolate tallbread

1 cup butter

4 ounces melted chocolate (if bittersweet, add 1/2 cup more sugar)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Cream together.  Mix in the flour.

Take a teaspoon of dough roll it in a ball and dredge it in sugar.  Put on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or a silpat.

Bake for 20 minutes.  This is why the temperature is at 325.  I am underbaking a bit.

I have made these with bitter sweet and semi sweet chocolate.  NO cocoa powder.  I just do not like how it tastes.  I have to admit that I prefer the bittersweet chocolate ones, probably even more then the plain.

tallbreads or the start of Christmas baking

I do a lot of baking as Christmas presents.  I started this weekend with tallbreads.  And what are tallbreads you ask?  What my family calls shortbread.

Shortbread

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Cream together.  Mix in the flour.

The dough is going to remind you of pie crust.  Very crumbly.  

Take a teaspoon of dough roll it in a ball and dredge it in sugar.  Put on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or a silpat.

Bake for 20 minutes.  This is why the temperature is at 325.  I am underbaking a bit.

These melt in the mouth and disappear magically when you are not looking!  

I created a chocolate shortbread recipe too.  I will share the semi-sweet and dark chocolate version tomorrow.

Christmas cookie party

We had another cookie decorating party this weekend.  This time the theme was Christmas which does not mean you ever know what you are going to get.  Especially if the boys are feeling creative.

Here is the cookie recipe again (because I was asked for it):

http://panaminthandmade.squarespace.com/blog/2010/11/2/a-party-around-cookies.html

I do believe people had fun!

Cookies were eaten and decorated.  Soup was eaten and rolls devoured.  The Teahouse was climbed on.

To all those who came to decorate cookies, we enjoyed ourselves bunches!

and now back to our regularly schedule program (lefsa)

Yes, I am being silly.

I made a pot roast last Sunday and we had it with mashed potatoes.  I decided I was going to make a few extra taters because I wished lefse.  And what is lefse?  It is a Norwegian potato flat bread.  Think potato tortillas.  

Lefse

1 pound mashed potatoes

5 ounces (1 cup) flour

1 teaspoon salt

more flour for rolling

(please notice this are the same proportions as for gnocchi.  why should I not be surprised?)

So the first thing is to make enough mashed potatoes.  Notice all those peels?  The potatoes need to be made with butter and cream just like you would server for dinner.  Truly think leftovers!  I, of course, have to plan leftover mashed taters.

Preheat your griddle over a medium low heat.

It is a good thing if you can use cold mashed potatoes because that way you will not burn your fingers.  You are going to squish the flour and salt into the potatoes and make a smooth dough.  It should feel like tortilla dough.  Nice and smooth not sticky.  You may need a bit more flour or a bit more water (just wet your hands) depending on the humidity around you.

Once you have a ball of dough, make twelve golf ball size balls of dough.  This will make small breads.  If you wish bigger breads, you need something more similar to a fist size.  I grew up with the fist size ones but my griddle is not that large.

Put the raw round on the griddle.  You are going to bake it for two or three minutes or until it has golden spots.

Flip and do the same to the other.  Spread with butter and sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar or spread with jam.  These are yummy warm or cold!

This is actually part of our holiday traditions.  And I admit that we need to do this one much more often then the holidays!