Beer Bread

March 24, 2010 at 10:11 am (Bread)
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We got a beer bread-making kit for Christmas and it comes with a ceramic baking dish.  This is the recipe that came with that, so I’m not sure how well it would translate to other types of containers.  But, we need a place to store this recipe other than on our refrigerator.  This bread was incredibly good–sweet and rich–so certainly not something we need to eat often at all.  I used a nice Belgian Ale leftover from a party–it was a darker beer and was great in this.  I also added some garlic and asiago cheese to the mixture (see below for other suggested flavor variations)

Ingredients

4 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups warm beer
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter, melted

Instructions

Mix dry ingredients and beer.  Pour into the greased beer mold and pour melted butter over mixture (put a dish in the bottom of the oven to collect the butter that will drip out–we learned this the hard way!).  Start in a COLD OVEN at 325 degrees.  Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours, remove from pan and cool 10 to 15 minutes.

Experiment with different beers and ales for a savory taste.  A darker beer will give you a deeper, fuller flavor while a light beer will taste less robust.

Flavor Variations

Italian:  Add 1 tablespoon fresh basil and oregano, 2 mined garlic cloves, and 1/2 cup of romano cheese to the beer bread mix.

Herb:  Add 1 teaspoon each of rosemary, oregano and thyme

Spicy:  Add 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 1/4 can of green chile peppers, chopped

Seeds:  Add 5 atablespoons of poppy seeds or sesame seeds or caraway seeds

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Flatbread Dough

September 26, 2009 at 3:13 pm (Bread)
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Source:  Cooking Light July 2008

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 flatbread)

Ingredients

  • 1  cup  boiling water
  • 1/3  cup  yellow cornmeal
  • 1  package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
  • 1/4  cup  warm water (100° to 110°)
  • 2  cups  all-purpose flour
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 2  teaspoons  olive oil
  • Cooking spray
  • 1  tablespoon  yellow cornmeal, divided

Preparation

Combine boiling water and 1/3 cup cornmeal in a bowl; let stand 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small bowl, and let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine cornmeal mixture, flour, and salt in a food processor, and pulse 4 times or until blended. With processor on, slowly add yeast mixture and oil through food chute; process until dough forms a ball. Process 1 additional minute. (To prepare dough by hand, combine cornmeal mixture, flour, and salt in a bowl; stir until well-blended. Add yeast mixture and oil, stirring well.) Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead lightly 4 or 5 times (dough will feel tacky).

Place dough in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover; let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.)

Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a ball (cover remaining dough while working to prevent it from drying).

Roll each ball into a 10 x 6-inch oval. Place 2 ovals on a baking sheet lightly dusted with 1 1/2 teaspoons cornmeal. Repeat procedure with remaining 2 ovals on an additional baking sheet lightly dusted with 1 1/2 teaspoons cornmeal. Add toppings and bake according to recipe directions.

Note: If you use whole-grain cornmeal, which still contains some of the hull and germ of the dried corn kernel, you’ll need to increase the flour to 2 1/4 cups.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 304 (10% from fat)
Fat: 3.3g (sat 0.4g,mono 1.8g,poly 0.5g)
Protein: 8.3g
Carbohydrate: 59g
Fiber: 2.9g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 3.8mg
Sodium: 295mg
Calcium: 11mg

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Homemade Pizza Dough

February 8, 2009 at 9:40 pm (Bread, Main Dish)
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Homemade pizza is becoming a frequent Friday night ritual at our house, and we’re slowly working towards perfecting the art of truly great pizza making. This week we were a little over-ambitious in my opinion, and turned what’s supposed to be a fun Friday night dinner into a festival of dirty dishes. We decided to make our own tomato sauce tonight for a Pepperoni Pizza and also cook chicken and bacon to make a BBQ Chicken Bacon pizza. The upside is that there is now extra pizza sauce and roasted chicken in the freezer for another round of pizza making.

Add to the massive amount of prep work some post-jogging fatigue and a low blood sugar meltdown (both me), realizing that we forgot to buy cheese temporarily made homemade pizza Friday seem like the worst idea ever. Rhiannon even got yelled at in line by a stranger at Wal-Mart when she graciously offered to go get cheese. Some guy claimed she cut in front of him in line, when in fact there was no one there and she’d never cut in line anyway since a) she’s nice and b) she knows she’s a tiny white girl living in a bad neighborhood. All was made right though by beer and cider and awesome pizza.

We’ve landed on a great dough recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. My mom also gave us a baking stone for Christmas, and the difference it makes is remarkable. I’ve yet to make (or even eat) truly bad pizza so I’m not sure such a thing exists, but the pizza stone makes a crispier crust that rises more and is shockingly good compared to baking it on a cookie sheet.
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Ingredients

4 1/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant or rapid-rise yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil (plus extra to oil bowl)

1 3/4 cups warm water

Instructions

1.  Add all dry ingredients to food processor fitted with a dough blade.  Pulse briefly to combine.

2.  Turn on food processor and with the processor running, add oil and then water.

3.  Process until a rough ball forms, probably 30 to 40 seconds.

4.  Let dough rest for 2 minutes.

5.  Process for 30 seconds longer.

6.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form a smooth round ball (probably about 5 minutes).

7.  Tranfer dough ball to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap.

8.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1.5 hours.

9.  After dough has risen, turn on oven to 500 to preheat.  Put pizza stone in the hot oven and heat for at least 30 minutes.

10.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter.  Cut into 2-3 pieces, depending on how many pizzas you want.  Shape each piece into a ball, cover again with plastic wrap, and let rest 20 to 30 minutes.

11.  When oven and pizza stone are hot, and the dough has rested, shape the dough into a round shape on a piece of parchment paper.

12.  Top pizza as desired, and slide the parchment paper and pizza onto the hot pizza stone (transferring it first  to a flat cookie sheet is helpful).

13.  Bake pizza 8-13 minutes.

Yield:  3 12-inch rounds, or 2 that are slightly larger and/or thicker.

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