Rose's Alpha Bakers: Whole Wheat Walnut & Raisin Loaf (bump)

I haven't had a chance recently to bake with my friends in the Rose's Alpha Bakers group, but I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things as the summer winds down (I can't believe it's already August!). This week's bake is Rose's 100% Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf. I made this bread (with a few tweaks) way back in February and it was absolutely delicious!

It quickly became a favorite and I made is about 5-6 more times during the long and seemingly never-ending New England winter we had this past year. It was the perfect winter bread - hearty but not heavy, tasty, and amazing when toasted up and topped with butter and honey.

My tweaks were to add a small amount of white flour and to add raisins. I also started making 1.5x the recipe so I could get two full loaves out of it. The first time I made it I got one loaf plus a few rolls so figured...why not increase the recipe slightly and get two loaves?

This bread is an all-day affair as the starter takes about 4 hours and then there are two rises. I tried once to start the dough the night before and finish it the next morning, but I didn't like that loaf as much so went back to waking up early to start the loaf and finishing it around lunchtime of the same day.

I highly recommend making this bread! Delicious.

yummy and healthy!

delicious with butter and a bit of honey

nothing better than homemade bread on a cold winters day!

My full post for my tweaked loaf that I called Whole Wheat Walnut & Raisin Loaf, plus lots of pictures, is here.

Bye for now...
 

Rose's Alpha Bakers: Whole Wheat Walnut & Raisin Loaf

It's catch-up week for Rose's Alpha Bakers. Instead of making a recipe I missed, I decided to try something healthy this week and made the 100% Whole Wheat Walnut Loaf from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible. I made a few small changes though - adding a bit of white flour and some raisins - so I'll call mine a Whole Wheat Walnut & Raisin Loaf. It was a mostly whole wheat loaf that was 100% delicious!

While I am enjoying baking through The Baking Bible, I am really feeling the need to be more healthy...so I've just purchased Rose's The Bread Bible and will be making more breads and fewer sweets. I'll still be baking along with my online buddies (as evidenced by next week's chocolate cake, which I've already made!), but - here in Massachusetts - we've been digging out from one storm after another and making fresh bread from scratch while I'm stuck in the house feels like an awesome winter project.

my finished loaf and dinner rolls

You can see here that the loaf baked up with a nice light crumb. It was hearty, but not heavy.

a view of the inside

lovely fresh rolls

Overall, the bread was amazing. It was easy to make (although it took all day) and the taste was delicious. I felt so healthy eating it! It also made so much dough that I could make a full sized loaf plus eight rolls.

I was a bit nervous about using only whole wheat flour because I feared the bread would be too dense and heavy, so my loaf doesn't look much like the picture in the book. Rose's bread (in the book) looks almost like a Boston brown bread to me - very dark in color with a tight crumb. My loaf is lighter in color and slightly fluffier inside. The addition of raisins also kind of threw off my senses and I was expecting it to be slightly sweeter, so next time I think I would add a bit more honey to the dough or just use nuts and no raisins. Turning it into some kind of cinnamon-raisin-walnut bread would also be yummy.

The first step in making the bread is making a "sponge," a starter dough that adds structure, flavor and texture to the final bread. I let mine rise for the full 4 hours (with the rest of the flour sprinkled over the top) to get the best flavor possible.

ingredients for the sponge - so easy!

the sponge was really liquidy

One of the ingredients was vital wheat gluten. I'd never even heard of this before, but was glad I found it at the grocery store! I don't know if it was just a great recipe or the addition of the vital wheat gluten, but this bread was really great! A definite make again recipe.

ingredients for the bread

hmmm...so this is what vital wheat gluten looks like!

the dry ingredients are mixed together

After mixing the starter ingredients, the rest of the dry ingredients are mixed together and sprinkled over the top of the sponge like a thick flour blanket. Then the dough rests for 1-4 hours.

sprinkle sprinkle...see you in 4 hours!

After 1 hour, small cracks have formed in the flour "blanket." After 4 hours, there are lots of bubbles all around the edges. Baking with yeast is so cool - it's alive (said in Dr. Frankenstein's voice)!

after 4 hours...bubbles everywhere

so cool - a science experiment in my bowl

After four hours of resting, the dough gets mixed together then the oil and salt are mixed in. I was a bit worried at this point because it seemed really oily...but, of course, it turned out fine.

After that, the raisins and walnuts are mixed in, then it gets the first rise.

mixing everything together...a bit oily now, but not for long

in go the raisins and walnuts

and another very brief mix, to incorporate everything

Time for the first rise. The dough goes into my lovely dough-rising-bin.

there is always that nervous moment...will it rise properly??

yahoo, it rose! Beautiful.

After the first rise, the dough is turned out - look at all those beautiful air bubbles! - gently deflated, and back in the bin for another rise.

gently deflating the dough

and giving it a gentle knead

Time for the second rise...

after about an hour, it's done

Then the dough is turned out again, shaped, and put in the pan for the final rise. To shape it, it's rolled up and placed in the pan, seam side down.

rolling...

...rolling....

and pinching the seams

into the pan for the final rise

I thought there was way too much dough to fit into my bread pan so I split it in half for the loaf and to make 8 rolls.

roll dough, ready to be shaped

into the pan for rising

After the final rise we're ready for baking. Yum!

beautiful dough!

golden brown rolls

look how pretty they are!

a bit of butter and we're ready to go

gorgeous loaf on the outside...

...and in the inside!

Bye for now...

Rose's Alpha Bakers: English Dried Fruit Cake

Another week of baking with my Rose's Alpha Bakers friends. Up this week: English Dried Fruit Cake. I'm a little late in getting my cake posted, but have been juggling the end of the semester and writing two papers...not to mention working full-time!

I actually made the cake last week and brought it to my office holiday party - it was a big hit (although, I made sure not to label it "fruit cake" so as not to scare anyone off!) so I had the cake and the photos done last week...I just didn't have time to write up my post.

a lovely spice cake with apples, raisins, and pecans

I am not a fan of English fruit cakes, so there was no way I was going to add any glacéed fruit. But, luckily this recipe didn't call for any! The recipe called for any mix of dried fruit that you'd like, in addition to fresh apples, so I kept it simple and just added raisins. So, in reality, my iteration of Rose's English Dried Fruit Cake was more of a spice cake with apples, raisins, and pecans (and rum).

The cake itself was very moist, even 3 days later, so I would recommend this cake if you need to bake something in advance. I added the optional rum into the batter itself so it had a nice, little rum background flavor - it was very nice. The cake also make a lot of pieces, so a good cake for a party or a crowd. Next time I would add more spices - definitely nutmeg and probably some ginger as well.

Enjoy!

mise en place - a pretty easy cake to make!

butter and sugar get melted down together...

... and then cooked for a few minutes

while the raisins are being "plumped" up in boiling water

the apples and zest are added to the sugar-butter mixture
...I had to try a bite of this, just to be sure...(delicious!)

then the eggs are added one-by-one

the nuts and raisins are tossed in the flour
(next time I would add the raisins directly to the wet mixture because
a lot of flour stuck to the wet raisins even after baking and didn't look good)

not very appetizing-looking batter...

but, ahhh, the finished cakes were much nicer!

delicious!

...I'd better just try a bite before the party. Yum!

Bye for now...

Carrotcake Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I made these cupcakes a couple of years ago for my birthday and they were SO good. The frosting alone is amazing...I think I could just eat the frosting on its own. It is cream cheesey, orangey, and sweet. So delicious.
I think the Carrotcake Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting came out much better this time. I added more spices, added raisins, and used more butter than oil (I ran out of oil so had to improvise). I also used a larger shredder for the carrots so the pieces were larger and more noticeable in the finished cupcake. I really liked the addition of the raisins, and more butter was nice too. I think using more melted butter versus all oil made the batter thicker, more like a cake batter, instead of thinner like it was last time. The cupcakes lasted almost a week (unfrosted), covered on the kitchen counter. I kept the frosting in the fridge and scooped a bit out as needed, letting it warm to room temperature before using.

The recipe is 24-Karat Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Icing from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions (page 239).

mise en place for the cupcakes

the smell of the orange zest (for the frosting) was divine

a food processor made grating the carrots a breeze

the cupcake batter: adding the melted butter

nearly there...you can see all of the spices...yum!

the carrots, raisins, and walnuts get added last

beautiful!

I like to use a scoop so the batter is evenly distributed

ready to bake

done! They smell so delicious.

making the cream cheese frosting

for flavoring the frosting: I used orange zest, freshly squeezed
orange juice, and a few drops of pure orange oil

the softened cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar are beaten

the orange juice and vanilla are added...so smooth and silky!

finally the orange zest is added...so delicious!

cooled and frosted

I'd better just try one before serving them

ready for company...yum!

Bye for now...