Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

delicious bread but not as light as described in the book

I love the flavor of the 9th bread in The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread. However, I was not too happy with the texture because the bread did not rise as high as I wanted. *It's a good thing I only made half a recipe.* After the 2-hour first rising the dough did not double its volume, it grew larger by about 70%, maybe the raisins and walnuts had something to do with the slow rise, I don't know, but I went ahead, shaped, and baked it. The bread didn't have an oven spring either, not one millimeter, none, nada. I was scratching my head and couldn't think of the reasons why the bread did not rise properly. I followed the recipe exactly as written and I believe my SAF instant yeast is still good; it's just one of those days I guess. The bread is very yummy, though, specially with the swirly cinnamon sugar but it is not a light bread as described in the book, it is slightly dense and chewy which is not so bad really but I prefer a lighter texture. And the finished bread is somewhat ugly with bumps all over and one or two warty-looking thingies.:-)

bumpy warty loaf

The next day I made another half recipe minus ¼ cup of raisins. I let the dough relax for 1 hour before kneading in the raisins and walnuts, omitted the cinnamon sugar swirl, and let it rise for 2 hours before shaping into a loaf. The second rising took 90 minutes and the bread had an oven spring of about an inch resulting in a much lighter loaf although I miss the flavor burst of the cinnamon sugar. I will bake this bread again, perhaps with some whole wheat flour, and of course, the cinnamon sugar filling.

still a little bumpy but much smoother, taller, and lighter

the second batch is over an inch taller and has a lighter tight crumb

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 3
visual appeal 2.5
ease of preparation 4
performance 3
worth 4
Total: 21.5
Average: 3.58

Cinnamon Buns And Sticky Buns

glazed cinnamon bun

sticky buns with chopped macadamia nuts

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge 8th recipe is for Cinnamon Buns and Sticky Buns. After reading the recipe for the caramel glaze, I couldn't resist making the sticky buns. I halved the rolled dough and the slices from one half dough went into a 9-inch round cake pan, the bottom layered with ¼ inch of the caramel paste and a few tablespoons of chopped macadamia nuts (I ran out of pecans). I love this gooey caramel glaze, it is very good.

sticky gooey goodness

The other half of the dough was mistakenly divided into 8 portions and placed on the baking pan too far apart. I wanted thick cinnamon buns but it was already cut and they came out a little bit thin. Oh well, I can always bake another batch and make them into gigantic cinnamon buns. And the good thing is they become crispy when toasted and sinfully indulgent if paired with David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel ice cream...it's like eating an open-face ice cream sandwich, sooo addicting.

toasted cinnamon bun, not just for breakfast anymore...
try it with Salted Butter Caramel Ice cream for a super duper delicious dessert or snack

The recipe does not have a layer of soft butter on the flattened dough before sprinkling the cinnamon sugar mixture. Most recipes I know have at least 2 tablespoons of soft butter for a moist cinnamon bun. But I want to follow the recipe as written so I used just cinnamon sugar and I expected the cinnamon buns to be a bit dry. Thankfully they are not and the bread itself is moist, soft, and delicious. I still prefer them with butter cinnamon sugar combo and I drizzle the insides of the coil with a little melted butter before glazing and eating. I just have to have my butter.:-)

I leave them bare and glaze them just before serving

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 4
performance 5
worth 4
Total: 27
Average: 4.5

Ciabatta

5-ounce ciabatta

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge recipe 7: Ciabatta. This Italian rustic crusty chewy bread shaped like a slipper has become so popular and when a restaurant started to serve sandwiches using ciabatta several years ago I was eager to try but was so disappointed at first bite. The bread was incredibly leathery or maybe flip-floppy; I thought I was chewing on rawhide. And the bakeries are no better with their mediocre ciabatta but thanks to BBA and other cookbooks, not to mention several websites, I am now able to have freshly baked ciabatta at home that are flavorful and yes chewy but not rubbery.

For this challenge I [again] forgot to take photos of the unbaked dough. Sorry about that. Anyway, I divided the dough into four 5-ounce sandwich rolls and the remainder of the dough I shaped into a long thin baguette. The rolls were shaped like a letter just like in the photos and I put them on individual pieces of parchment, uncouched. It is easier to slide them one by one from the peel onto the baking stone.

For this recipe I used a poolish which I left in the refrigerator for 2 days to develop more flavor. The ciabatta recipe is easy to follow but I find the dough a little bit dry and had to sprinkle a lot of water while kneading because the wetter the dough the more hole-y the bread will turn out. I honestly thought even with the additional water I felt the dough was still dry. And this is what's odd about this batch: three of the sandwich ciabatta rolls have random large air pockets but one didn't have any, just a few medium and small ones. The baguette also has irregular medium and tiny holes in them. I can't believe these are from the same dough. I suspect my oven has cold spots and I should have baked them in batches. But overall, I like this recipe; the bread is chewy, crusty although not as dark brown as I would have liked, and definitely more flavorful than store-bought. I love it with crisp-fried pancetta, lettuce, and tomato or simply halved and baked topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese seasoned with dried Italian herbs. I probably will NOT use this recipe again for my next ciabatta as I have PR's ciabatta test recipe for his upcoming book.

the baguette and one roll have few small air pockets, the one at the front right is hole-y

PLT: pancetta, lettuce, and tomato

crunchy crust, chewy crumb, gooey mozzarella, yummy Parmesan

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 4
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 4
performance 4
worth 4
Total: 24
Average: 4

Challah

22-ounce woven round challah with golden raisins

I can't believe The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is already on its 6th week and my enthusiasm for baking hasn't waned. Maybe because this week it's Challah, one of our favorite breads from the first time I saw its dark golden bumpy crust at the grocery. The grocery-store variety are not the very best tasting challah yet I bought the loaves on a regular basis. I only started baking them when I saw a sweet potato recipe and we had it for Thanksgiving dinner last year. It was sweet and delicious. For Christmas I baked a regular one [also] with dried cranberries in the dough. Equally yummy.

I had always wanted to try my hand at shaping a round challah that I see on the web and this challenge has encouraged me to make it. The BBA has instructions for a 2-strand braid but I wanted a 4-strand round. I found this with step by step photographs on how to shape a woven round challah, very easy to follow. After finishing weaving and the dough turned over I was so satisfied and happy with myself for accomplishing something I thought was too complicated.

The challah recipe in BBA is one of the easiest and fastest to make which means you get to eat the fruits of your labor in just a few hours. I love its tasty very soft yet chewy crumb and the fact that it has no butter. For the oil, I usually use extra light olive oil or grapeseed oil because both oils are the most neutral tasting and healthy too as they can help raise the "good" cholesterol level. I also read that olive oil increases the shelf life of baked goods which is a plus. I divided the dough into two 22-ounce pieces, one I made into a 4-strand braid. I forgot to take photos of the braiding process. I didn't use the book's instructions as the previous braids I made using this method somehow looked uneven, I can't explain why. I followed the braiding technique in this video instead and the braid came out good. No matter how it looks, lopsided or perfectly shaped, the BBA Challah is number one in my book.:)

bumpy but yummy

great for grilled cheese sandwich: grated Gouda, apple carpaccio, and fig preserves

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5

BBAC: Casatiello

with steamed asparagus for brunch

and fresh strawberries for breakfast

I love the fifth bread in the BBAC, Casatiello. I am so glad I joined this baking challenge because I would never have paid attention to this bread if I hadn't. Whenever I flip through the book I always skip it thinking it's just another version of brioche and it actually is. The difference is, this Italian cousin of brioche is filled with meat and cheese. It's a savory buttery delicious bread which I enjoy very much for breakfast with fresh fruits and for brunch with steamed asparagus. It's also very good with a sprinkling of powdered sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup, both sugary additions complement the toasted slices.

I filled the bread with diced mortadella and grated Asiago pressato. I like the mild flavor of the mortadella, think Spam only better, and I love the bits of fat and whole black peppercorns in it. The meat and cheese came out evenly distributed throughout the bread but I would have liked more filling and should have increased the amount by at least ¼ cup of each.

baked in a small loaf pan and 12-ounce coffee cans

I like this bread so much I baked a second batch (half a recipe), filled it with sopressata and a combination of diced Asiago pressato and coarsely grated young Gouda, and because I wanted to celebrate my "discovery" of this bread I baked it in a bundt pan. Taking a needed break from too much butter, I used extra virgin olive oil to replace almost all of the butter. I'm not sure if it is the olive oil but the second batch is more tender and flakier but just as delicious as the all-butter Casatiello; the flavor of the oil is very subtle, btw.

I can't believe this is half a recipe: the dough more than doubled in bulk after 50 minutes of proofing and had a good oven spring too, filling the pan almost to the top

it looks purty durn yummy

specially with sweet wine

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5, another winner. Woohoo!

BBAC: Brioche

à tête

loaf (Nanterre)

BBA Challenge fourth recipe: Brioche. The book has three options: Rich Man's with 1 pound, yes, 1 pound of butter, Middle-Class with half a pound, and Poor Man's with a quarter pound. I chose the middle class because I've made the poor man's version several times already and although I am more than satisfied with the PM brioche which is perfect for making Croque Monsieur, I want a richer brioche with more butter but not THAT MUCH butter.

The middle-class is very rich and I can't imagine how the rich man's will turn out. I won't know because I have no intention of baking it soon; maybe after we are done with all the recipes I'll take a stab at it. I'm happy with the middle-class with its soft light-as-feather delicious crumb and flaky crust. It's a little bit richer than poor man's as expected but there's very little difference in flavor and texture. Brioche is one of the breads that I will never get tired of. It's easy to prepare and on the eyes, versatile, and did I mention very yummy?

proofing in 9-wave brioche (or tortilla) molds

After the first bite of this brioche you'll hear yourself nomnomnom-ing whether it's

torn off by hand

(I love the flaky crust)

or neatly sliced

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5, yes we have a winner!^__^

Wild Yeast Starter

When I baked the Greek Celebration bread a little over 2 weeks ago, I had to use a poolish because my 7-month old wild yeast starter died on me. The last time I used it was 2 months ago for rye sandwich loaves, but the jar got pushed at the very back of the fridge and I forgot to feed it. When I saw the very dark "hooch" and the bubbleless firm starter I knew it's a goner. I tried to revive it, took out half and added bread flour and warm water, left it overnight on the kitchen counter but nothing happened so I threw it away.

Please note that I am not jumping to letter S but since we will be using a starter for future BBA challenges, I made 2 new batches using both PR's BBA recipe and this method. PR's fell asleep on the 6th day after showing great potential. It wouldn't grow or bubble or anything, I just left it alone and kept it on the counter for 2 weeks before finally throwing it away. The one from The Fresh Loaf site is another story. It behaved as described and on the 6th day I divided it, added bread flour to one half and whole wheat to the other, they started growing steadily with every feeding and by the end of the second week have gotten stronger and developed a very fragrant sweet aroma. I immediately baked half a recipe of Basic Sourdough Bread from The BBA to check the flavor and acidity. Both starters are doing well and now resting in the fridge.
A bit of fun with wild yeast starter: I read in one of the BBA discussion threads that the son of a member baker calls us BBA challengers The Bread Freaks and The BBA The Bread Freaks' Bible. I totally agree, we are some sort of freaks! A few (or maybe a lot) of the bakers give their starters a name (and perhaps a personality); Nicole of Pinch My Salt calls hers Lyle after Lyle Lovett. My husband thinks it's weird, I think it's cute and fun. I want to be a certifiable Bread Freak and decided to name my two starters Brad and Angelina, Brad being the fair one.

meet Brangelina

For the [taste test] sourdough bread loaves, I used equal amount of both starters and equal amount of bread and whole wheat flours. I was very confident that Brangelina will perform well and produce a flavorful bread. They did not disappoint. The twins loaves are perfect: tangy but not too sour, very tasty, and chewy yet soft. I am recommending this wild yeast starter recipe to anyone who doesn't have a starter yet because it uses a very small amount of flour so you won't feel wasteful if it is not successful the first time. I will give PR's recipe another try but will reduce the initial amount by half as I don't want to waste too much flour.

The BBA Basic Sourdough Bread Loaves:

top: the dough doubled in volume after one hour
bottom: the dough more than tripled in volume after 3 hours

the finished loaves

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge: Bagels

toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, salt

It's the third week of The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge and bagels are in the spotlight. I made bagels twice before, the first one about 5 years ago was a total disaster, and recently as a recipe tester for Peter Reinhart's which went great.

Although they are not as shiny as store-bought, I am very happy with the BBA bagels because they came out chewy, dense, and heavy just the way I like them. Delicious!

I made half a recipe, added 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten to the bread flour, and I also used barley malt syrup both in the dough and poaching water. I should have increased the amount of baking soda for shinier bagels. The dough yield was seven 4-ounce pieces which are too big IMHO. I might reduce each ball of dough to 3.5 ounces next time. For the topping I used black and white sesame seeds, black and white poppy seeds, and salt. It is worth making these bagels, they taste superior to store-bought.

this gram/ounce weighing scale with tare is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets

shaping the bagel

ready for an overnight stay in the refrigerator

the seven bagels +

toasted and slathered with honey-nut cream cheese

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 3.5 (shaping is not so easy)
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 27.5
Average: 4.58

The BBA Challenge is hosted by Nicole of Pinch My Salt