From the category archives:

breads

Jerry and Elaine’s Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

May 28, 2010

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

Rejoice yeast-o-phobes! I have found the perfect recipe to convert you.

I am one anxious person when I’ve to make bread. I’m never sure if a new recipe I try will work out. Will it rise? Will it get a nice brown crust? Will it smell too yeasty (answer to this: I used to think mixing instant yeast with warm water to start the fermenting would be a good idea, turns out, it does the same job when added to the flour, just a lot less stinky dough).

Babkas originated in Eastern Europe and in several Jewish settlements, though in my mind they were popularised on Seinfeld (The Dinner Party). Jerry and Elaine miss out on the last wonderful chocolate babka, and have to settle for a cinnamon babka. Chocolate vs cinnamon – that’s a tough spot to be in, isn’t it? To eliminate this predicament once and for all, and in honour of this wonderful Seinfeld episode, I decided to make “Jerry and Elaine’s Chocolate Cinnamon Babka”.

The chocolate cinnamon babka recipe from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday looked too good to be true, so just as a precaution, I halved the recipe. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t because this was so soft and chocolatey and delicious. (I’ve given the full recipe here).

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

So why is this recipe so good? Glad you asked. This chocolate cinnamon babka starts with all the familiar things of making a cake that puts you at ease instantly… cream the butter and the sugar together, add the egg yolks one at a time and then the flour… See? And before you know it, you’ve added the yeast mixed into milk and the dough has beautifully come together! A golden yellow dough (read rich dough full of butter, eggs and sugar!) results and you’re half way through making your bread.

Now you just have to let it rest for about 2 hours (or you can refrigerate it overnight, just make sure to pull it out 2 hours before you want to bake it). Next, roll it out and spread it with dark chocolate and cinnamon. Roll it. Twist it. Bake it!

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

And of course, the flavour possibilities with this bread are endless: cinnamon sugar, white chocolate vanilla and (I’m thinking we might get some of the caramelised white chocolate goodness that David Lebovitz raves about), Nutella (!), chocolate with sliced almonds, pistachios, etc. and maybe even some fruits – fresh as well as dried?

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka Recipe

Adapted from: Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday (OMG, I love this book!) (USA | UK | India)

Makes 1 really large loaf or two medium sized loaves.

Bread:

2 tbsp / 19g instant yeast

3/4th cup / 170g lukewarm milk

6 tbsp / 85 butter

6 tbsp / 85g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

3 ½ cup / 425g all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Filling:

1 ½ cups / 225g dark chocolate, coarsely grated

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4th cup / 55g butter

Whisk the yeast into lukewarm milk and set aside for about 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a KitchenAid, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the yolks to the bowl, one at a time, mixing constantly for 30 seconds between each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
Add the flour and salt and continue to mix until it all comes together.
Now mix in the milk + yeast mixture and let it mix until it forms a soft dough.
Knead by hand for another 2-3 minutes. You will have a soft, supple and golden dough.
Let this rise for about 2 hours, or refrigerate overnight, making sure to remove it from the fridge two hours before baking.
For the filling: mix the chocolate, butter and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Once the dough has risen, roll it out into a sheet with a thickness of 1/8^th to 1/4^th inch. Make sure to keep it dusted well with flour at all times, else it might stick.
Spread the chocolate mixture over it.
Roll the sheet of dough and then pinch the seams to seal it. Roll it to a length of about 24 inches. Either you can keep it this big if you’d like a big loaf, or cut it into half for two medium loaves.
For the gorgeous twisty shape, cut the log down the middle lengthwise, making sure to keep the top end attached. Twist over each other to get the braided look.
Now you need to let if prove for another 2 hours, but I skipped this step because I overlooked it. Turns out, you too can totally skip it, if you’re short on time.
Preheat the oven to 350F/175C and bake for 15-20 minutes for medium sized and 20-25 minutes for the large loaf.
The babka tends to brown quickly because of the high(er) sugar content, but you shouldn’t worry. It tastes fab!
Cool for an hour (painful) or eat it right away (delightful!)
The bread stays good for 2-3 days in an airtight box.

{ 71 comments }

Rosemary and Garlic Oil Focaccia

April 1, 2010

I made bread! Well it’s not really news, and definitely not something that I haven’t attempted before (yep, so what if it’s just banana bread!). But this time, I’m really excited to report that I made bread: fluffy (oh yes, I conquered volume!), white, soft and wonderfully chewy bread. A golden top brushed with garlic infused olive oil and spotted with rosemary and sweet, mushy cloves of garlic – this focaccia is something I’m very proud of.

I have been through quite a few books for baking bread. I love the detailed step by step instructions in Peter Reinhart’sBread Baker’s Apprentice; but sometimes, these very elaborate explanations make me a little nervous and I run to something less complicated. Nothing beats the simplicity of 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood. It was the first book I ever bought on the subject and the focaccia recipe from this book is something I’m happy I’ve stuck by. I made this bread 3 years ago when I was a bread-baking noob and I made this bread again yesterday (still a bread-baking noob), and it did not fail me.

When I saw that the recipe used oil that has been steeped with garlic overnight, I knew I was on the right track. However, to speedup the process, I peeled and pierced eight or nine cloves of garlic and poured hot olive oil over them instead of waiting all night. They sizzled for a good five minutes after that while the flavours of the oil and garlic infused together and the house smelled as if an Italian grandma was rustling up a meal using her favourite bottle of olive oil. I let it sit for about twenty minutes before I used the oil for the dough.

I must tell you that bread with garlic + olive oil + rosemary = world peace bread. And this bread dipped in homemade pesto is something I wouldn’t mind eating everyday for the rest of my life.

Rosemary and Garlic Oil Focaccia

Adapted from : 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood with tips from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter Reinhart.

8 cloves of garlic, pierced through the centre (feel free to cut down on the garlic, if you came in late, you should know that I’m garlic obsessed)
100 ml olive oil
500g strong white flour (I used all-purpose)
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast or 20g fresh yeast
250-300ml water
a few sprigs of rosemary

Place the garlic cloves in a bowl and pour hot oil over them. Let it rest for 20 minutes before you use it.
Put the flour, yeast, salt and most of the oil and the water into the bowl of a KitchenAid and knead for 4-5 minutes until the dough comes together. It should clear from the sides of the KitchenAid, but still stick to the bottom of the bowl (tip from Peter Reinhart: see complicated recipes do teach you stuff as well!)
Let it rest for an hour, minimum. I left mine in the refrigerator overnight.
Punch down the dough and roll it out into a rectangle of about 2.5cm/1 inch thickness.
You can either make this free-form on a baking sheet brushed with oil, or fit it into a 11 inch square pan.
Poke dents into the dough, brush with garlic oil, sprinkle with salt and rosemary.
Bake in a preheated oen aat 220C/425F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 200F.
Eat warm!

{ 45 comments }

Garlicky Herb Twists

July 21, 2009

I love using stumble upon to discover new food blogs and recipes, and a few days ago when I was getting my regular dose of stumbling, I came upon a recipe for herb and garlic twisty bread that instantly made me sit up, take notice and mark it as a high priority baking item. With a name that has herb and garlic in it, who wouldn’t? I have got to admit, I have a thing for a recipe with garlic. Sometimes all I need to get convinced to try a recipe is to know that it had a good amount of garlic or maybe an interesting way to use garlic (remember the garlic infused oil in the baked fries? *swoon*). Don’t even get me started on roasted garlic; I could eat that for dessert.

This is one recipe that is so easy to put together. You can either use store bought pizza dough or make your own. The recipe calls for rosemary and thyme, but you can just as well use your favourite herbs. I usually don’t make the same thing twice (ah, the perils of food blogging), but I just had to make these a second time for two reasons: 1. the taste of the herby filling with garlic and parmesan was distinctively etched in my memory and 2.( ahem) the photos I took the first time weren’t quite up to the mark. I couldn’t not have these on my blog so I made these again!

Some things I learnt while making this the second time:

A moist dough is always better – it resulted in such soft and pillowy bread as opposed to a very chewy one with a stiffer dough.
More parmesan is always a good thing.
You can sub your favourite seasoning mixture for the salt and pepper which makes it more likable.
Don’t be shy to use more than the prescribed amount of herbs.

I urge you to go ahead and make these. Don’t be surprised if you make a meal out it. Better still, serve it with your favourite garlicky dip and you’ll be in garlic heaven.

Garlic Herb Bread Twists
Adapted from: Gourmet July 2009

1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (2 ounces), divided
Salt and pepper or your favourite seasoning blend
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 lb / 900g pizza dough, (or use store-bought)
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 400°F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Lightly oil 2 large (17- by 13-inch) baking sheets.
Stir together rosemary, thyme, 1/4 cup cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper in a small bowl.
In a pan gently heat the olive oil and stir in the garlic until it just begins to sizzles. Turn off the heat immediately. Add 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper to it.
Divide dough in half. Keeping half of dough covered with a kitchen towel, gently roll out other half into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle on a floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin.
Sprinkle one half of dough with half of herb mixture, then fold dough in half crosswise from top to centre and then again from bottom to centre. Roll lightly to form a rectangle. Cut lengthwise into 9 strips (less than 1 inch wide) with a pizza wheel or a pastry scraper. Twist each strip from both ends and place on baking sheet, arranging twists 1 inch apart. Don’t worry too much if they flop back, you can just as well call them “rustic”. Next, brush with garlic oil and let stand while forming remaining bread twists.
Repeat process with the second half of the dough.
Bake bread twists, switching position of sheets halfway through, until golden (15-20 minutes total).
Meanwhile, stir together parsley and remaining 3/4 cup cheese in a shallow baking pan.
Immediately after baking, brush bread twists with remaining garlic oil, then roll in parsley and cheese until coated. Serve warm or at room temperature.

{ 38 comments }

Bagels For The Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge

June 3, 2009

A few weeks ago Nicole of Pinch my Salt tweeted about starting to bake bread from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Bakers Apprentice and called out to all those that might be interested in taking up the challenge along with her. I loved the idea instantly. But I didn’t think I could participate because the local bookstores didn’t carry the book. When I told her how I’d love to hone my bread baking skills but won’t find the book, she instantly offered to send me a copy! I was touched. With a little research, I found an online resource where I could buy this and didn’t have to bother her. But thanks, Nicole, I really appreciate the gesture.

The book reached me just in time to try something I’ve had on my mind for a while – bagels! I’ve made soft pretzels before and thought this would be perfect to start with since I’m acquainted with the boiling method.

Now, besides those pretzels, the only kind of bread I’m comfortable baking is focaccia and pizza bread so when flipped through the pages to find the first 200 pages full of methods and techniques, I was flabbergasted. Information overload! I didn’t manage to read through all of it and jumped straight to the page on bagels (not the best thing to do). I’m going to start reading it over before I start with next week’s assignment.

For the bagels, I tried a sweet version – cinnamon and raisin bagels. I followed the recipe as closely as I could but when it came to boiling the bagels, I forgot to add baking soda and so my bagel looked quite ugly. Also, the dough had risen a lot more than I expected so it wasn’t holding shape too well.

Learning from my mishap, I shaped smaller bagels the next day and made sure to add the baking soda in the water before plonking in the bagels. And just by the look of it, I knew these would be perfect! For step by step instructions, you must check out Nicole’s post on bagels.

Let me tell you, after making these bagels, albeit with a few bumps on the way, I feel so much more confident about making bread.

{ 27 comments }

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels

April 8, 2009

It’s always a good thing to like baking – when you crave something you know you can whip it up to satiate yourself. There might just be that tiny bit of lag time, though, but it’s all worth it! The other day when I craved for some soft pretzels coated with cinnamon sugar, I went looking for a recipe when suddenly I remembered that I had an e-mail from a friend who had made some gorgeous looking pretzels a while back. I rummaged through the archives and was overjoyed to find that e-mail from way back in 2007! I quickly got down to work.

I made two batches just to see how the taste would vary when I gave the dough time to ferment for a day (the real reason being the lack of time. But anyway, it did help figure that out). Although the second batch of dough fermented for over 8 hours as opposed to the first batch that got rising time of about 40 minutes; I couldn’t really notice too much of a difference. If you’re in a cooler place, you might need to let it rise for about 15 minutes more. See, I knew living in a place at 40°C has its benefits!

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels
Yield: 6-7 pretzels

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 cups regular flour
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups water (for boiling the pretzel)
2 tablespoons baking soda
Cinnamon sugar,
4 tablespoons butter, melted

In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water (if you tend to kill the yeast with hot water like do, then use water right from the tap. The yeast will take longer to froth up, but at least you know you’ve not killed it). Add sugar, and stir to dissolve.

Add flour and salt and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise for 40-60 minutes at least.

Shaping the dough: Divide the dough into 6-7 parts and then roll it out. Make sure to keep both the ends thinner than the rest of it since both the ends are going to be tied together an will become thicker eventually. Also, make sure that you roll them out thin, not more than ½ an inch in diameter, because they will swell up twice – once after the water bath and then when it’s baking.

Next, boil the two water and add the baking soda. Drop the pretzels in the water bath and let it stay in for about 5 seconds. Make sure the stove is still on. After the pretzel is removed from the water bath, make sure to dry the excess liquid on it on a kitchen towel before placing on the baking sheet/silpat/baking stone. Below is a comparison of how the pretzel looks before and after a water bath.

Place the pretzels on a baking sheet and brush with a lightly eaten egg. Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C/450°F oven for ten minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack. Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle the sugar cinnamon all over it. Don’t be shy, make sure to coat both sides and every nook and cranny!

These are best stored at room temperature. I have no idea how long these would keep since we consumed these on the day they were baked. If you do have some left, I’d be happy to know how long they kept for.

Variation: You can use the same dough to make the savory ones as well, just sprinkle some salt after the egg wash (so that the coarse granules stick) and you will have the traditional type of pretzels.

Savory variations: herbs, your favourite seasoning mix, sesame, onions, garlic butter, Parmesan and herbs, sun-dried tomato and herbs.
Sweet variations: almond or pistachio flakes, coconut flakes,lemony icing sugar glaze, melt-in-the-mouth powdered sugar, dipped in chocolate or spread with Nutella or peanut butter.

Enjoy the soft, chewy golden goodness!

{ 50 comments }

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