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...

Spaghetti with garlicy-mushroom sauce

For dinner last night I made some sauteed mushrooms to go over pasta. It was delicious!

Ingredients for the "sauce"
1 Tbls. olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
3 portobello mushrooms, sliced in half and then across into thin slices
8 oz of white button mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 c. red wine
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbls. jarred spaghetti sauce
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated, to taste

In a large frying pan, sautee the garlic in the olive oil over medium-high heat for a minute or so. Add the portobello mushrooms to the pan, then add the button mushrooms. Give everything a good stir so the garlic doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan.

Let the mushrooms cook down slightly, stirring occasionally. Add the wine and spaghetti sauce and cook for another 5-10 minutes until the liquid has reduced and thickened.

cooking down the mushrooms

While the mushrooms are cooking down, cook your pasta. I used whole wheat pasta so it took a bit longer than spaghetti made with white flour.

getting hungry now

While I'm waiting for things to finish, I'll grate some cheese to top off my spaghetti.

hmmm, that may be a bit too much

When the pasta is cooked to the package's directions, drain it and add to the frying pan, mix well with tongs  to coat all of the spaghetti with the sauce. Then plate, add your cheese, and it's dinner time!

delicious!

Bye for now...

Pecan Lemon Biscotti

I made up this recipe a few years ago when I was going through a biscotti phase. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. pecans, toasted; after toasting, roughly chop 1/2 of the pecans
2 1/2 c. flour (I like to use 1 c. whole wheat and 1 1/2 c. white, all-purpose)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 Tbls. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
juice from one lemon
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and nutmeg; stir to combine.

In a separate bowl mix eggs, egg yolks, lemon juice and vanilla. Add the wet ingredient to the dry. Mix until almost all of the flour is incorporated and then mix in the pecans. The dough may be sticky.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to finish (do not knead too much or you will overwork the dough). If the dough is too sticky, you may need to sprinkle a bit of flour on the top and/or your hands.

Divide the dough into equal pieces and roll each into long logs. Roll them thinner or thicker - your choice. I prefer my biscotti smaller, so my logs are thinner.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Remove the logs and lower the oven to 275.

baked logs

When the logs are cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife and slice into cookies. You should get 15-20 per log, depending on how long you rolled them and how thick you want your finished cookies.

slightly cooled and sliced

Lay each cookie on its side. I like to use a rack here so you don't have to flip them half way through. Bake slices at 275 for 20-25 minutes more. Cookie should be completely hard and dried throughout; keep baking if needed until you reach that stage.

ready for the second bake

Let cool completely.

you can smell the nutmeg and lemon...yum!

All I need now is a cup of coffee for dunking!

biscotti!

Bye for now...