Whole Wheat Strawberry Bread: HBinFive

The first bread for the July 1st HBinFive Bread Braid, is Whole Wheat Mixed Berry Bread. You can use frozen mixed berries or any kind of frozen berries for this bread.

I had some frozen strawberries left over from my strawberry-picking adventure so I decided to make Strawberry Bread rather than Mixed Berry Bread.

To begin the process, I let the strawberries defrost for a little while. Then cut them up into smaller pieces.

While the strawberries were thawing, I milled some white whole wheat flour using my WonderMill.

It's very durable and can mill up to 6-8 cups of wheat.

This is the freshly-milled white whole wheat flour.

Next, I whisked together all of the dry ingredients (white whole wheat, all-purpose, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten).

Then I combined the wet ingredients (water, honey, and berries)

And mixed the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients using my Danish dough whisk.

I had heard from some of the other bakers that their dough was really wet due to the thawed berry juice so I was expecting a very wet dough. However, that was not the case with my dough.  In fact, I had to add a bit more water because the home-milled whole wheat flour soaked up the liquid.

Once the dough was thoroughly mixed, I covered it and let it sit on the counter for 2 hours to rest.

After the dough rested on the counter for 2 hours, I placed it in the refrigerator to ferment overnight.

The next day, I removed the dough from the refrigerator and since it was such a good consistency, I decided to shape it into braids rather than regular loaves.

I divided the dough into 3 balls. Then I divided each ball in half for a total of six balls of dough. I had only made 1/2 batch of dough which was enough for two loaves.

I rolled each ball of dough into a long rope.

Then I placed 3 ropes vertically side-by-side.

And crimped the ends together on one end to secure the braid.

Then I braided the bread using the over and under technique.

Then I tucked the ends of the other side underneath.

Eventhough the dough wasn't extremely wet, it was still sticky so the braid didn't turn out as nicely as I would've liked.  So, I decided to try a different method of braiding for the other braid.

I put the three strips vertically side-by-side, then I started the braid from the middle this time.

And did the over under technique on the bottom half.

Then tucked the ends underneath.

Then I repeated the over and under technique on the other half.

And tucked those ends underneath.

I actually think I like the first braid better.  It seems to be a little more uniform.  It's the one on the right in the photo below:

The braids were looking pretty good now so I covered them with plastic and let them rest for about 1 1/2 hours. I think that was a mistake.  It was really hot and they lost their shape during the rise.

When it was time to bake the loaves, I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled them with raw sugar.  Then I baked them for about 25 to 30 minutes in a 450 degrees oven on a baking sheet (without the stone).

Once the loaves were baked through, I removed them to the cooling rack to cool before slicing.

Then it was time to it eat.  The egg wash and raw sugar made the outside brown and little bit crusty.  The dough was a beautiful color, but once it was baked, you could hardly tell that there were any strawberries in the dough. It still tasted good though.

I toasted a couple of slices.  I had one with cinnamon and honey cream cheese and the other with homemade Strawberry Lemon Marmalade which was made from the strawberries we picked. Delicious!

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Check out BigBlackDog to see all of the breads in the July 1st Bread Braid roundup. 

Happy Baking!
Cathy



About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.

Quick Strawberry Lemon Marmalade

The theme for this month's tigress can jam is berries.  This includes strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, other edible berries and even cherries.  I like this theme.  I don't think you can go wrong with berries.

We went strawberry picking a few weeks ago so this was perfect timing for the berry theme.  I froze about 12 cups of the strawberries so they wouldn't go bad before I got the chance to make jam out of them.  I made traditional strawberry jam with some of the strawberries and decided to make Strawberry Lemon Marmalade with the rest.

Quick Strawberry Lemon Marmalade

Makes: about seven 8-ounce (250 mL) jars
Recipe from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

This marmalade is quick and easy!  It takes about half the time of your traditional marmalade because it uses powdered pectin.  It allows you to enjoy some delicious marmalade without slaving over the hot stove too long.  That is definitely one of the things I like about this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup thinly sliced lemon peel (50 ml)
• 4 cups crushed hulled strawberries (1 L)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 package (1.75 oz/49 to 57 g) regular powdered fruit pectin
• 6 cups granulated sugar
  
  

Directions:

Prepare canner, jars and lids. For details, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

Cut the peel of a lemon into quarters and remove it. The lemon should be large enough to yield 1/4 cup. Remove the rind and cut the peel into thin slices.  Reserve the juice of the lemon.

In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, combine lemon peel and water to cover.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for about 5 minutes, until peel is softened.  Drain and discard liquid.

Add strawberries and lemon juice to peel and mix well. I started with 2 quart-size bags of frozen strawberries.

I had to add another bag of frozen berries to make 4 cups.  I didn't plan this too well so I had to wait for the 3rd bag of strawberries to thaw before I could continue with the process.

It didn't take too long for the berries to thaw, then I crushed them and added them to the pot with the reserved lemon juice.

Whisk in pectin until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.  Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and skim off foam.

Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot marmalade.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw bad down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.  If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, let them sit on the counter overnight, then store.

Or give some away like I did.  This was one of gifts I gave my dad for Fathers Day.  He loves strawberry jam!

We're making jams or pickling every month in 2010. For more info, go to tigress can jam.  Be sure to check out the May Can Jam Roundup.


Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy


Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

Roasted Garlic Spelt Bread in a Bread Pot

This Roasted Garlic Spelt Bread in a Pot is made with Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Garlic Bread dough.  It utilizes a mixture of spelt flour, ground flaxseed and all-purpose flour. I like spelt and roasted garlic so this seemed like a winning combination to me.  

Spelt is an ancient grain that has a somewhat nuttier and slightly sweeter flavor than whole wheat flour. It is a distant cousin to wheat and can be used in many of the same ways as wheat, such as bread and pasta making.¹  Spelt contains more protein than wheat, and the protein in spelt is easier to digest. This means that some people who are allergic to wheat may be able to tolerate spelt. Spelt has gluten, just like wheat, so spelt is not suitable for a gluten-free diet.²

Spelt performs better when mixed with other flours.  It has gluten but it is a very fragile gluten so it doesn't rise as well as wheat.  This is also what makes it more easily digestible than wheat for a lot of people.

This particular formula made a really wet dough.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to shape a free-form artisan loaf, I decided to bake the bread in my clay bread pot.

Roasted Garlic Bread Baked in a BreadPot

I used the recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

To begin the process, I roasted a large head of garlic in the oven.  Then I mixed together the ingredients, covered the bowl and allowed it to rest on the counter at room temperature for about 2 hours.  Then I refrigerated the dough for 2 days until I was ready to make the bread.

When I was ready to bake the bread, I removed it from the refrigerator and pulled off a 1-pound piece and proceeded to shape it into an oblong shape.  I had to add a good bit of flour to keep it from sticking to my hands, but it still didn't seem to hold it's shape very well.

At this point, I decided to use the bread pot, so I put the dough in another bowl to rest while I preheated the bread pot in the oven.

 

After the bread pot had preheated in the oven for about 30 minutes, I carefully placed the dough in the pot.

The dough was too wet to slash with a knife so I used scissors to cut an X on top.  I baked the loaf with the lid on for about 30 minutes. Then I removed the lid and baked it for another 15 minutes.

The last two breads I made in this bread pot were not completely baked through. So to make sure the bread was done this time, I stuck a skewer in the middle and when it came out clean, the bread was ready. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see the hole in the bread where I stuck the skewer.

When I removed the loaf from the oven, I let the loaf cool a bit in the pot.  I placed the pot on a cutting board draped with a towel so that it wouldn't break.  Extreme changes in temperature can crack clay pottery so I wanted to prevent that. 

After the dough had cooled in the pot for a few minutes, I removed the loaf from the pot and let it cool on a wire rack.

Then it was time to test this baby. You can make a parsley butter for this bread, but I dipped it in olive oil sprinkled with herbs instead.  It was yummy!

We enjoyed a slice with our salad for dinner.  It was really good.  The roasted garlic flavor really comes through in this bread.  It also gives the house a wonderful aroma - that is, if you like the smell of garlic.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.

 

References:
¹http://nutrition.about.com/od/grainsandcereals/p/spelt.htm
²http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=143

Making Jam: Favorite Strawberry Jam

This is my Favorite Strawberry Jam.  It says so on the recipe...

The good thing about this recipe is that it does not use pectin nor does it require standing over the stove stirring a boiling pot of jam for an extended period of time.  This was very nice indeed. It gets hot here in the summer and I was not looking forward to that part of the process.

That's one of my container strawberry plants in the photo.  My strawberry plants have produced some delicious strawberries but not enough to make jam.

So...

A couple of weeks ago, we went strawberry picking at Washington Farms. 

It was really hot that day, but it was fun picking our own strawberries.

I picked 2 buckets full so my family would have plenty to eat and I would have plenty for making jam. 

The strawberries were really ripe so I froze about 12 cups until I was ready to make jam.  I froze them on a baking sheet first.  Then carefully placed the frozen berries in a quart-size freezer bag. I ended up with 6 quart-size bags of strawberries. When I was ready to make the jam, I just took a couple of bags out of the freezer and let them thaw a little bit but not enough for them to get soggy.

To make this strawberry jam, I turned to what has become one of my favorite canning books: The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard.

Favorite Strawberry Jam

Makes: 2 1/2 cups

Their method uses standing periods alternating with much shorter cooking times.  It makes a jam that retains its lovely red color and fresh flavor.  Can't beat that!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups halved or quartered firm strawberries (depending on the size)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
  

Directions:

Mix berries and sugar and let stand for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.  I started this process on Saturday morning and left for the day so I stirred it at the beginning and the end.

Place berry mixture in a medium stainless steel or enamel saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil rapidly for 5 minutes.  

Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 24 hours.

 

 

Bring berries to a full boil over high heat and boil rapidly for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.

 

Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes. If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

Remove the jars from the canner and let them sit overnight on the counter.  Then the jam is ready to be eaten (or photographed in this case then eaten).  This jam tastes really good and it's easy to make, but it only made 3 cups.

Hmmm...that gives me an idea!  Since this particular recipe only used 4 cups of strawberries, I have some left for another batch of jam. I'm thinking of some jam for a certain can jam that is coming up.


Just saying...


Do check back next week to find out what I made for the tigress' Can Jam.


Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy


Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

Grilled Pizza Margherita

Another one of the breads on the Mellow Bakers' menu this month is Pizza.  I love pizza and was really excited about trying this one.  I got the opportunity this past weekend when I was invited to a get together with some friends. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to make this pizza dough. It's really hot here these days so I decided to grill it instead of heating up their house.

I chose Pizza Margherita because of it's simplicity. It's basically just uncooked crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. The original pizza was created by an Italian baker from Naples in honor of Queen Margherita.   The red, white, and green ingredients were his homage to the Italian flag.  We had it as an appetizer while the main course was being prepared.  The simple ingredients and the fast preparation worked out really well.

The Pizza Dough is made using the formula on page 273 of Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.


Making the Pizza Dough

I started the process by making a biga of bread flour, water and yeast.  I let the biga sit on the counter for about 15 1/2 hours.

After the biga had rested sufficiently, I mixed all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl (except the biga and the olive oil). You can use a mixer but I mixed it by hand using my danish dough whisk. 

Then, I added the biga in small chunks. Well, my biga was not that firm, it was more like little blobs than chunks.  This was probably because it was much hotter than 70 degrees in my house.

Drizzle the olive oil over the dough and continue mixing until the dough is supple.  I mixed this part with my hands.  The dough was squishy between my fingers.

 

After I had incorporated the olive oil, I transferred the dough to the counter and kneaded it for about 5 minutes.

Then placed the dough in an oiled bowl and covered it with plastic.

And let the dough ferment for a few hours.

I folded the dough after about an hour of bulk fermentation.

Then, I let the dough ferment for another hour at home and transported it in the bowl.  The dough actually fermented for close to 3 hours rather than 2 hours.

Once we got to our friends house, I divided the dough into two balls and let them rest on the counter for about 20 minutes.   I would normally use parchment paper in the oven on the baking stone, but since I was going to grill the pizza, I put the dough balls on greased aluminum foil instead.

Grilling the Pizza Margherita

At this point, I followed the instructions for the grilled Queen Margherita Pizza.  The recipe is from Pizza on the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blumer.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup uncooked grits or polenta, for rolling the dough (I didn't need this since I used aluminum foil).
• 1 ball of prepared pizza dough, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup Crushed Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (or 1 cup grated)  I used packed mozzarella because that is what I had.
• 10 fresh basil leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

   

Crushed Tomato Sauce:

• 1 14.5-ounce can crushed tomatoes with or without basil, undrained.
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pour the crushed tomatoes into a small nonreactive metal or glass bowl.  Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper.  Drain the excess liquid from the tomatoes and discard.

Directions for grilling the pizza:

Preheat a gas grill by setting all of the burners to high, then close the lid and leave on high for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat of all the burners to medium.

Roll out and shape the dough.  Drizzle or spread 1 tablespoon of oil on each side of the dough. I used my fingers to spread one of the dough balls into a shape that would fit the aluminum foil.  I probably should've spread it out a bit thinner, but there wasn't enough room to spread it out anymore.

Then I took it outside using my handy-dandy pizza peel.  I just love this peel!  It's very versatile and easy to use.  It keeps me from getting burned when making pizzas in the oven or on the grill and it folds for easy storage.

Grill the first side of the pizza until the bottom is well marked and nicely browned. 

Use tongs or a pizza peel to flip the pizza. If you grill directly on the grate, you'll get nice grate marks, but I used aluminum foil so I didn't get the grate marks.

Spread the entire surface with the sauce, sprinkle with the garlic, and top with the cheese.

I put all of the toppings on the pizza and started to grill it,

but then I remembered that I wasn't supposed to add the basil yet.  So I took the basil off and finished grilling the pizza until the cheese had melted and the crust was done.

Then I removed it from the grill, and garnished it with more basil and some salt and pepper.  Then you're supposed to slice and serve immediately.  That was not a problem...

because everyone was chomping at the bit to eat the pizza.  In fact, I didn't get anymore photos, but it sure was good!


Happy Baking!
Cathy


The Mellow Bakers group was started by Paul at Yumarama. We’re baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.