Whole Wheat Rye Loaf Revisited

This post exists solely to let you know how delicious the Whole Wheat Rye Loaf was.  4 days later I baked a second loaf (since the first was long gone) and it came out just as wonderfully, if not even better than the first due to the extra time in the fridge.  I'm definitely going to revisit the recipe and play around with it a bit, so I'll post the full recipe once I've made some changes.  In the meantime, go get Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and make yourself some of that rye bread.

-Lil

Homemade Matzah: Flatbread Not Cardboard!

On Passover, Jews do not eat bread (or anything that rises for that matter).  Long story short, we do this because indecisive Pharaoh released the Jews (only after all the convincing of the 10 plagues) and they high-tailed it out of there.  In their haste, they whipped up a crude dough but they did not have time to allow it to rise.  Jim Lahey's no-knead technique was a no-go.  And it's a good thing they didn't wait around -- Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his men after the Jews.  Then, the miraculous scene we all know with the Red Sea parting, allowing the Jews to run to safety and (spill some wine) swallowing up the Egyptians chasing after them.  For thousands and thousands of years thereafter, all Jews everywhere would suffer through eating cardboard-esque Matzah, or flatbread typically consumed on the Jewish holiday of Passover.

As a Jew with a bread blog and Pesach fast approaching, I was both relieved and excited to try Mark Bittman's recipe for Olive Oil Matzah.  We modified the recipe a bit by using white whole wheat flour and adjusting the liquid slightly to compensate.  

White Whole Wheat Matzah
(Printable Recipe)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup water (and a little extra)

1/3  cup extra virgin olive oil

salt

1. Preheat oven to 550°F
2. Stir together flours.
3. Add oil slowly as you mix with a hand blender or food processor.
4. Help dough come together with hands.
5. Divide into 12 equally sized pieces.
6. Roll out as thin as you can.
7. Arrange on baking sheet and either make little holes with a fork, or don't.  
8. Bake for two minutes on first side.
9. Flip, and bake for another minute until golden brown.
10. Let cool and top with haroset, horseradish, or some cream cheese and enjoy!

Leavening Agents:  A short list of culprits on the rise...
Yeast
Lactobacilli bacteria (Sourdough starter)
Baking soda (like in Irish Dairy Bread Buns)

A leavening agent is anything used in a dough or batter that causes it to rise thereby lightening/fluffing the finished product.  In bread, when the water mixes with the flour a matrix supported by gluten is formed in the dough.  This matrix traps the bubbles from yeast/lactobacilli/baking soda leaving behind the beautiful holes we all see in our loaves.  For the eight days of Passover anything that rises is a big a no-no.  My chametz (sourdough starter) is living in the freezer for the time being.

“If that’s moving up then I’m moving out.”

Disclaimer: The kosher-ness of this Matzah is questionable.  From what I understand, to get the little U in a circle you need to finish the cooking process in 18 minutes flat.  Our first batch was out of the oven by then but since we have a tiny oven we had to cook the 3-minute flatbreads in shifts.

Chag Sameach
- Sarah

Luck of the Irish Soda Bread Buns

"I want another piece!"

"I love Irish Bread!"

"It's still warm. It tastes warm and yummy warm!"

The critics agree, Irish Soda Bread is awesome! Now, I am sure you are wondering who these tough critics are.. So I'll tell you: they are the four-year-olds in my UWS nursery school classroom.

As picky eaters go, nursery school children top the charts. In this infamously picky crowd, it is almost unbelievable that every child present in school today ate (devoured) their portion of Irish Soda Bread. Not all, but most, requested more. This cooking project supports my belief that if you allow children the opportunity to take part in cooking and food prep they are more apt to try (and love) foods.

With all of this bread baking in our UES apartment I have been looking for an opportunity to bring it crosstown into my classroom. I feel that cooking is great for kids and that bread especially is therapeutic -- the kneading is a perfect outlet for movement.. and in a productive way! So, as Saint Patrick's Day approached I planned to make Irish Soda Bread with the classroom.

Children "folding and smooshing" aka kneading:

I modeled kneading and asked them to describe what I was doing. I threw in the word "kneading" and gave equal (if not more) emphasis to "fold and smoosh." Some children wanted to shape their dough "like playdough" which is perfect. They played and kneaded for about 5-10 minutes and rolled the dough into a ball as they were ready to put it onto the baking sheet.

A soda bread is a term that encompasses a everything from your basic baking soda-flour-salt bread to a sweeter, raisin-filled, more dessert-like soda "bread" (in quotes because it may be more cake-like than bread). American's are more familiar with the cake-style and the Irish are more familiar with the basic, bread. It is a quick bread which means there is less wait time because the recipe doesn't call for any yeast -- the rising agent is the baking soda.

Luck of the Irish Dairy Bread Buns (adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion)
(Printable Recipe)

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Combine dry ingredients. Blend thoroughly making sure to press out any lumps in baking soda.
3. Add butter.
4. Use fingers to rub in butter.
5. Make a well in the center.
6. Count to 20 while slowly pouring in buttermilk.
7. Stir gently.
8. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until dough comes together.
9. Divide into 6-8 equally sized pieces.
10. Knead and shape individually.
11. Bake for about 20-30 minutes** until golden brown.
12. Let cool and finally, ENJOY!

**If you bake this as a whole loaf of bread you'll need to adjust the cooking time to be longer, about 40 minutes.

I will spare you most of the teachable moments this recipe provides.. counting to 20, digging the well, etc. I could go on and on. Lil can testify. I would like to note the fourth step, using fingers to rub the butter into the flour. It was a fantastic tactile experience for the children with the exception of one child who had a sensory hesitation so I invited him use a spoon. Even he participated in the kneading. Both kneading and stirring with the hands provided awesome, joyful learning experiences.

Happy belated Saint Patrick's Day!
- Sarah

Whole Wheat Rye Loaf and a Lesson in Economics

OK, so I won't really bore you with a lesson in economics.  Supply, demand, equilibrium, free trade yadda, yadda, yadda.  I was an Economics major in college, so I know exactly how dull that all can be.  There is a very important and relevant theme throughout economics, though, that I think we need to talk about - saving money.

Here's a condensed version of Microeconomics 101 (I lied; I am going to bore you): Consumers won't pay above a certain price for a good simply because it's in their best interest to save money so that they can keep as much of it as possible.  Suppliers, on the other hand, demand that consumers pay above a certain price for that same good because they, too, would like to get their hands on more money.  Everyone's really looking for the same thing - to keep as much money in their own wallets as possible.  

The bread market is no different than any other economic market out there.  Suppliers, be they large manufacturers or small local bakeries, need you to buy their bread for far more than the cost to make it in order to make money.  You, on the other hand, would like to keep that money, right?  Luckily, there's an easy and delicious solution here:  

Make your own bread! 

I'm not saying that the little old woman down the street is diabolically planning to chip away at your life savings by charging $6 or more for a loaf of her wonderful bread, because she also needs to pay the bills.  What I am saying is that, if you can't afford to pay the lovely woman down the street for her healthy, natural, and scrumptious loaves, making your own bread is a far better alternative than buying cheaper sandwich loaves from the store.  I'm not saying that's the worst thing in the world either, but why not avoid the preservatives and processed ingredients if you can? 

Sar and I recently took Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois out from the library.  Not only is the book filled with delicious recipes, it proves that baking bread is not inconvenient.  Additionally, I'm here to prove to you exactly how economical it is to turn your kitchen into a pseudo artisan bakery.  For the Whole Wheat Rye that I made from the book (I won't post the recipe, since I didn't really make many changes, so please check out the book or the authors' website) I needed the following ingredients:

White whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, bread flour, yeast, salt, and water.  

This is what they cost here on the UES:

King Arthurs brand white whole wheat flour - $5.69 (5 lbs)

Bob's Red Mill brand dark rye flour - $3.24 (1 lb 6 oz) 

Gold Metal brand bread flour - $4.89 (5 lbs) 

Fleischmann's brand active dry yeast - 2.69 (3 packets)

Salt & Water - basically free

Grand Total - $16.51

To make the bread I mixed all of the dry ingredients together and then added the water and mixed it until just combined - no kneading in this recipe!  This is what it looked like in the bright afternoon light of our kitchen:

I let this sit, covered with plastic wrap and out of the sun, for 5 or 6 hours until it looked like this:

Once the dough reached that stage, I took half of it it out and shaped it into a boule.  This was extremely challenging given the stickiness of the dough, but some extra flour on my hands and sprinkled on the dough made it possible.  I sprinkled some corn meal over the top and let the boule rest for another 40 minutes.  Here it is looking very controlled:

Once the boule finished resting, I quickly slashed the top with a serrated bread knife and popped it in a 450 degree F oven for 30 minutes.  Ta-da!!

Now, if you breakdown the prices shown above into the amount that you spend on just one of the two amazing loaves the recipe made, the total cost per loaf is only $1.47!  This would probably be even less if you live somewhere that grocery prices aren't as absurdly high.  The cherry on top is that this bread took less effort than navigating the narrow aisles of Manhattan supermarkets and schlepping a sub-par loaf back to your apartment.  Alternatively, the price should be enough for you to graciously say "good-bye!" to that kind old woman at the bakery down the street.  

-Lil

PS - I'm here to tell you that caraway seeds are NOT a necessary part of a good rye bread.  Since Sar and I are officially done with our feud, I'll say it loud and proud - I absolutely hate caraway seeds.  

Don't Yuck My Yum Sourdough Olive Bread

This Sourdough Olive Bread uses White Whole Wheat flour!  

I made it because I promised Nell I'd have a fresh loaf of Sourdough Olive Bread upon her arrival to New York.  However, this is also a retaliation post.

In a previous post, Lil confessed her dislike of raisins.  It used to be a much stronger hatred but I can give her some credit for letting raisins grow on her.  Fortunately, somebody taught me from a young age that raisins are candy.  

Our all out war over who was pickier started many many moons ago.  We were young and hot blooded.  I was upset that as a vegetarian I was treated as a picky eater.  Meat aside I eat most everything else.  I have never met a fruit or a vegetable I didn't love.  Except olives.  And mushrooms (but they're a fungus).  Both olives and mushrooms have a gross, slug-like texture.  I've never eaten a slug but if I did I am sure it would be just like a salty icky olive.  I can enjoy them when they are chopped up in a sauce or soup and (sometimes) on a pizza.  Otherwise, no thank you.  That is, until I met olive bread.   

For this olive bread, I set out planning on doing the Pain au Levain (the first sourdough experience) again and folding in olives.  I read that when you add nuts or olives to a sourdough loaf you need to compensate the waterworks.  For nuts, add a little extra water since they tend to dry out dough.  And for olives, use a little less water and salt because they are wet and salty.  Makes perfect sense.  

While measuring the flour, I realized we only had only enough all purpose to feed the starter... This is like the Nes Gadol Haya Sham (Chanukah miracle) of Sourdough breads:

Sourdough Olive Bread

(Printable Recipe)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 cups sourdough starter

1 3/4 cups water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup kalamata olives (although next time I would probably use a full cup)

1. Combine flours, water, olive oil and starter.  Stir well and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Carefully dump out onto a floured surface (I used bread flour).
3. Fold in the salt and chopped kalamata olives.  I've learned that you don't really knead sourdough in the typical way.  Folding and patting the dough into thirds (sort of like you were folding a piece of paper to go into an envelope), rotating 90 degrees and repeating is the way to go so as to prevent degassing the good lactobilli bacteria.  
4. Shape into a boule and let it rise for one hour in a olive-oiled bowl.  Be sure to turn the dough in the bowl so that the top gets oily as well.
5. If you'd like, now is the chance to retard your loaf.  Either, pop it into the fridge overnight or proceed to step 6.
6. Preheat oven to 450°F and let it rise for another hour outside of the fridge.  Remember to preheat your cast iron pan and dutch oven with the oven.  Also, have your water boiled on the stovetop and ready to turn your oven into a sauna.  
7. Shape, slash, brush with olive oil, and bake for 20 minutes steamy and uncovered (resist opening oven door) and an additional 25 minutes steam-less, covered until the crust is richly colored and the internal temperature** of the loaf is 200°F.  
8. Let it cool in dutch oven for 10 minutes.
9. Resist cutting into your bread until it is completely cool.  Listen to it sing (crackle pop noises of water escaping out of the crust).  It's worth the wait.
10. We recommend this bread with hummus, dunked in olive oil, or topped with a slice of brie cheese.  

**Internal Thermometers are relatively inexpensive and very helpful in bread baking.  We have one similar to this... It's a foolproof way to know if your bread is cooked through.   

So, Lil can eat raisins and I can eat olives.  Which is good because olives are really a miracle fruit.  They contain heart-healthy monounsaturated fat and natural antioxidants.  


I am over this "who is pickier" war and I am ready to sign the treaty.  I will eat the cilantro and Lil will eat the mushrooms.  And of course, I'll finish the milk.  All in all, our "No Thank You" lists are relatively short and complimentary to each other.  

What started out as a retaliation post has turned into a peace-making post.

☮ -  Sarah