Brainstorming: interesting breakfast loaves.
I need new bread for toast. Horribly so.
When I was last here I had just had my second child. So...not much baking went on. He's over a year and a half old now, and I was getting sick of store bought bread. So...back to it. My kids are getting sick of it, too, though, and last night was the first time they touched bread in a long time: I made asiago cheese loaves and...er...they're almost gone now. Two more are in the dough stage as we speak.
So I need some kid-friendly ideas that I could experiment with for breakfast breads. I'd like something I can build on a basic slightly sweet, slightly enriched dough. The sweetening could vary with the type of fruit/seasonings that went in the bread. I was already thinking of doing a maple-oatmeal bread, sweetened solely with maple syrup. I had also tossed around the idea of a strawberry-banana bread (which would be very, very pink inside) and a pumpkin-oatmeal bread (with pie spices), and a blueberry-cream cheese spiral. I've also been tossing around the idea of doing a sweetened five spice bread, but that's a quick bread and not what we're talking about here.
So anyone have anything else I haven't thought of to throw out at me?
I don't think you can beat cinnamon-raisin-walnut bread. If the kids don't like nuts, leave them out. Peter Reinhart's formul from BBA is a winner.
Almost any bread, from white sandwich loaves to heavy rye, is great toasted and spread with almond butter. Personally, my favorite is the 100% whole wheat bread from BBA (also similar breads in WGB). This gets some protein, vitamin A and healthy fats into the kids.
David
I'm rebuying my whole wheat and whole rye tomorrow at the grocery store. I think I'll try a bread of 30% white flour, 50% whole wheat, and 20% oat flour (made from rolled oats, because that's what I have). I'll grab some maple syrup, and maybe add a little brown sugar for flavor. The kids should gobble it up (as should the adults) and it's definitely healthier than all white flour...and it may end up tasting like my favorite bowl of oatmeal. :D
Oooh, or...try that blend of flour in the cinnamon raisin bread and adjust for liquids accordingly. Hm.
There is something similar in the KAF Whole Grain Cookbook.
I'm also fond of honey whole wheat bread; good for sandwiches, toast, or with a dab of butter. Another favorite features a rye/whole wheat/bread flour blend with molasses and honey.
You might also want to check proth5's blog for her experimentation with a sandwich bread from her growing up days. If memory serves (and it often doesn't!), it may have some of the things you would find enjoyable.
Paul
Nancy Silverton has a recipe for Fig Anise bread in her Breads of the La Brea Bakery.
I use that recipe, replacing the Figs with whole, pitted Medjool Dates, adding a cup or so of roasted pecans, and skipping the Anise flavour.
It's toast to die for, especially buttered.
You have to adjust the hydration a bit, but it's easy enough to eyeball it.
It's a 2-day bread if you have a white starter.
Tips: freeze the dates before you put them into the dough, else they smush and disappear into the loaf. Best to just hand knead them and the pecans into the loaf, or both with disintegrate.
Recipe is on this blog if you don't own her book: http://bellabaitaview.blogspot.com/2011/05/anise-and-dried-fig-bread-and-small.html
I'll bookmark that to try once I get a starter going again!
Stephanie--
Hamelman's Bread has a Cinnamon-Raisin-Oatmeal bread that's very tasty (though not as tasty as the Reinhart recipe David mentions above). You could substitute other dried fruit, like cranberries or figs. That dough is easy to work with, so it can be made into a variety of shapes...maybe even oversized pretzels!
Good luck.
Glenn
This place has gotten busier since the last time I was here. Lots of new people's breads to salivate over look at.
Here's a link for a yeasted bread that I've started working on. It does use volume rather than weight measurements but my first experiment, where I adapted the formula to weight measurements and used a pre-ferment, worked out reasonably well. I think it can be converted to a sourdough loaf relatively easily. The source for the formula, the Kansas Wheat Commission, uses the winning bread formulas from the Kansas State Fair . There are no exotic ingredients required and it tastes pretty good as well.
http://www.kswheat.com/recipes.php?id=122
I make a variation of Hammelman's roasted hazelnut current bread but use Reinhart's master recipe in Whole Grain Breads. It's my favorite bread and it's 100% whole wheat, nuts and fruit.
FF
Peter Reinhart's White Bread I (Bread Baker's Apprentice), at least I think it's White Bread I (I'm too lazy to walk across the house and check). ; It's the one that uses milk powder.
Compared to those industrial, chemical leavened "white breads" (see Chorleywood bread process) in the market, you'll win the competition hands down.
The smell alone will tip it.
Toasted slices slathered with butter and sugar, and they'll just love it.
My gramms used to make homemade white bread toast for us (with butter/sugar or toasted in the oven with a melted slice of cheddar).
I'm surpised I'm not the size of a small house by now. ;D
I have now acquired whole wheat (KA) and rye (Hodgson's Mill), there is a concoction of 30g rye and 30g water on my fridge, and I'm looking through recipes. :)
Now that you got the whole wheat flour, here is a recipe that might fit the bill. I had to make for my kids when they were little. It's a bread machine recipe but you can prepare the dough by hand and bake it in the oven. It's very tasty and smells heavenly (honey, orange peel...). So, here it goes:
SAN DIEGO SUNSHINE BREAD (BREAD MACHINE MAGIC by Linda Rehberg & Lois Conway)
1 ½-pound loaf, light crust setting
1 cup water
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs butter
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs honey
Grated grind of 1 ½ oranges
1 ½ tsp yeast
Hope your kids like it!
JitkaB
I'm fresh out of orange peel, but I just bought some lemons. :D I'll try it with lemon instead and see how it goes.
I'm looking at the crust and the crumb of this loaf and my brain is saying there's something missing. It looks almost as light as white bread, but the ingredients would suggest it to be quite dense. One cup water to three cups flour, with one of those whole wheat? That hydration sounds off by quite a bit. Was there milk, perhaps? An egg or two?
I must be blind. I didn't even look at the amount of flour to water. I just looked at the flour and planned to translate that to metric, after which time I'd just add the water or milk until I got to the right hydration for a loaf (66% would be a good start for this, though). So...er...depending on the heft of JitkaB's cups, it could either be a good amount or way, way too little for my liking.
That's probably a good idea. A quick Google shows other recipes to be just as strange, with very low hydration. I see a few with hydration at ~50%, but most of the top results show the 1 cup water to 3 cup flour ratio.
Assuming a weight of 4 ounces per cup of flour, which is a typical weight conversion on the KAF website, 1 cup of water to 3 cups of flour is 66.7 % hydration.
Remember, though, that hydration goes by weight, not volume. That means that the *weight* of the water is relative to the *weight* of the flour. A cup of flour weighs about 4-5 ounces, so you're looking at a 60% or so hydration if taking that at the middle. It isn't too low for a sandwich bread, but it's on the lower side...especially for one with whole wheat.
I checked the ingredients in the book again and they are the same. So, there is nothing missing. Don't forget that there is also some butter and honey. The recipe is unfortunately in cups, so you might want to hold half a cup of flour back at first and see how the dough looks. It should be elastic but not sticky.
I haven't tried the lemon version, could be interesting, too.
JitkaB
I've been working on this loaf since...1PM? It's now 7.30. Should have been done BAKING by 6. Heh. I think it's time to head to the Coop this weekend and get myself another bag of SAF Red...and that means I can pick up some 7 grain flour.
I'm going to be making 7 grain sourdough by next Sunday!
ETA: Yeah, it's official: my yeast has kicked the bucket. That gives me two options: wait until I can get to the coop (Saturday) or buy a jar of active dry Fleishmann's. Bah.