Day 23 – Bread Wars Part I

It has been almost a month and I thought I’d never make bread worth eating.  I’d almost given up and had been content on eating my lunch-meat with tortilla wraps from here on out.  Then my buddy Mark sent me an easy, no-knead bread recipe.  This renewed the challenge and I then also scoured the internet for a sandwich bread recipe as well.  If I’m going to fail again, better make it a twofer.    After two earlier failed attempts at bread making and swearing the devil lived in my oven I had to give it at least one more try (honestly I would keep trying until the end of my days, having too much pride to be defeated by yeasty flour).   It was on.

I had decided to try the no-knead recipe first as it was the least involved, just mix it and set it. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour
¼ tsp instant yeast (rapid rise)
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups of warm water
Cornmeal or wheat bran
Coated cast iron Dutch oven

Directions: In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients.  Stir in water slowly.  Mix with hands until you have a doughy consistency.  Place in bowl covered with towel and let rest for 12-18 hours.

After 12-18 hours have passed, lightly flour your work surface.  Place dough on work surface, sprinkle with flour and fold over once or twice. Shape the dough into a ball.  Coat a cotton towel with corn meal or wheat bran.  Be generous or your bread will stick to the towel.  Put the dough seam-side down on towel, sprinkle with cornmeal.  Cover with another towel and let the dough rise for 2 more hours.

About a half hour before the dough has fully risen place Dutch oven into the oven and preheat at 450 degrees F.  When oven has preheated place dough into Dutch oven and cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove and place bread on cooling rack.    Let stand for 10-20 minutes then serve.  Bread can be stored in the freezer for a month sliced or whole.

This recipe makes for nice artisan style bread great for serving with dinners or eating on its own.  I prefer a softer crusted bread for sandwiches and will show you how to make that in Part II of Bread Wars.

*original recipe source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

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Day 20 – Making flour tortillas

It’s Mexican night yet again here at the Casa King et la Williams. I think I just mixed French and Spanish there (franglish?) but I speak neither so we move on. One staple of Mexican food is the tortilla. Traditionally the people of Mexico would be eating corn tortillas but in some northern regions they have some exposure to flour tortillas.  At most American-Mexican restaurants you will find the flour tortillas to be more prevalent. So lets make some flour tortillas.
The recipe is simple but its mastery is in the prep. Here is what you’ll need:
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp-1/2tbs of salt
2 tsp vegetable oil
3/4 cups warm milk

Here’s what you do;

Combine dry ingredients  with oil and stir while you warm the milk, 1 1/2 – 2 minutes in the microwave is plenty.  Your then going to add the milk 1/3 cup at a time while mixing. Work the dough until it has a good doughy consistency, it may still be a bit sticky.  On a lightly floured surface knead your dough for about 2 minutes and then let rest for about 10-15 minutes.  The dough wont rise but needs to settle.  Separate into 8 equal parts for small tortillas or 4 parts for larger, burrito sized tortillas.  Roll into a ball and let rest for about 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface you want to roll out each dough ball at a time.  Start rolling forward, flip and turn your tortilla 45 degrees and always roll forward.  This should give you a nice even shaped tortilla. You want to roll until their about 1/8 of an inch.

Once you rolled your tortilla you can now cook on a hot dry griddle or cast iron pan.  You’ll cook until you start to see small then large bubbles appear and the underside starts to show the signature golden brown blister burns on the bottom.  They should take roughly 1-1 1/2 minutes depending on your heat settings per side.

Once done place on a napkin lined plate and cover with aluminum foil unless your going to eat right away.  Tortillas can be frozen for months and reheated easily by placing tortilla in aluminum foil after thawing and heating in your oven, microwave toughens them after freezing.  Have fun at your next mexican night with your fresh made flour tortillas.  Enjoy.

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Day 19 – Bread

I am not a baker.  I have struggled with making bread before as you can see in post 2.  I had the day off of work today and had the Air conditioner service man over this afternoon so it was as good as time as ever to try making some bread.  Now I found a video on youtube that looked fairly easy.  After a few minutes of mixing and kneading and a few hours of waiting I baked my two loafs.  Both came out looking great and tasted OK.  That being said here’s how great it looked;

Because this isn’t all that spectacular I’ll post the video and let you all decide if you want to try it.  In the meantime I’ll be looking for another bread recipe.  Anyone got one that doesn’t involve a bread maker?

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