Spelt and Rye Pizza for Company

This month’s Bread Baking Day is hosted by Ninive from Ninivepices - Music, Dreams and more. The theme for BBD #59 is Bread for Company – Brot als Begleitung. What a great theme!  I think almost any bread would be good for company, but one of my favorites is Pizza. It’s an easy, self-contained meal that’s a breeze to make and tastes so good. What’s not to like about that?

Spelt has become one of my favorite grains to work with and pizza is one of my favorite dishes so putting the two together seemed like the natural way to enjoy a tasty and healthy meal.

I made pizza for company twice this month. The first time was on Mother’s Day Weekend when I got together with my mom and sisters to celebrate. For this event, I made a Spelt-only version because my mom enjoys ancient grains.

I brought the dough (along with my pizza peel, cutter and baking stone) to my mom’s house and my sisters brought the toppings and salad ingredients. My oldest sister likes ground beef on her pizza, so we topped one pizza with ground beef and onions and lot’s of mozzarella and feta cheese. The other pizza was topped with green and red peppers, red onions and more cheese.  I didn’t take a photo but we enjoyed them both.

The second time I made this pizza, I changed it up a bit to include some rye flour. My oldest son and I enjoyed this version topped with pepperoni, onions, peppers, mozzarella and feta cheese. I rolled the pizza dough really thin because my first taste testers (mom and sisters), determined that this dough tastes better crispy and thin, sort of like a whole wheat cracker with yummy toppings on it.

 

Spelt and Rye Pizza Dough

Makes: 2 Pizzas

Adapted from: Spelt Healthy! by Marsha Cosentino, M.A.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon instant dry yeast *
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 - 2 1/4 cups Whole Grain Spelt flour, additional for sprinkling
• 3/4 cup Whole Grain Rye flour
• Scant teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Pizza sauce (I used Spicy Pizza Sauce)
• Your choice of toppings

* I used less yeast than the original recipe called for because I let it bulk ferment for a couple of hours instead of the original 30 to 40 minutes to develop the flavor.  1/2 tablespoon may still have been a bit much. I think 2 teaspoons would probably do the trick.

Directions:

1) Mixing the Dough

In a large bowl, whisk together the rye flour and 1/2 the spelt flour and yeast. Add the warm water and mix well using a Danish dough whisk or a large wooden spoon.  Add the oil, salt and the rest of the flour in 1/2 cup increments and work the dough until it is manageable.  You can use a stand mixer to mix the dough, just make sure you use the lowest setting with a dough hook and only mix for about 90 seconds.  With spelt, you want to make sure it’s not over mixed.

 

2) Kneading the Dough

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it gently to form a smooth dough. Sprinkle additional spelt flour over it as necessary.  Form the dough into a ball.  Place it in a clean bowl greased with olive oil.  I just washed out the same bowl and reused it.

 

3) Bulk Fermentation

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place, about 70–75 degrees F., for 2 –3 hours.  Or, if you’re short on time, let it proof in a draft-free place, at 80-85 degrees F. until doubled in size, about 30-45 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready by inserting a finger into to the top of the dough.  If an indentation remains when you remove your finger, the dough is ready to use.

 

4) Shaping the Pizzas

Gently deflate, then remove the dough from the bowl using a rubber spatula. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured or oiled surface and divide it into two pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball and place them onto separate pieces of parchment paper sprayed with olive oil. Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap and let them rest for 15 minutes while you get the toppings together.

 

5) Preparing the Pizzas for Baking

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. with a baking stone on the bottom rack. Let the stone preheat in the oven for at least 30 minutes.

Using greased fingers, spread out the dough into a round, oval or rectangular shape, depending on the size of your parchment paper and baking stone. I used my rectangular baking stone so I shaped my pizzas to fit it.

 

6) Baking the Pizzas

Brush the dough with olive oil and parbake each pizza for a minute or so before adding the toppings. This will keep it from getting soggy on the bottom. Add your favorite sauce and toppings, then bake the pizza until the cheese is melted.  I rolled my dough really thin so it burned in a couple of places, but it still tasted great.  We just broke off the burned spots.

 

7) Cool the Pizza, Slice and Enjoy!

Let the pizza cool for a few minutes, then slice and enjoy.

 

I enjoyed participating in Bread Baking Day #59 – Bread for Company.  Thanks to Ninive for hosting the event and for Zorro for creating this monthly baking

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

A Mountain of Whipped Bread

The bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes is Whipped Bread. As I was making this bread, the song Whip It! by Devo kept running through my head. I danced around the kitchen, as I normally do while I’m baking, all the while thinking about how to “Whip It! Whip It Good!” as the song goes.

I must’ve whipped it too good because once the bread was baked, it became a heap of bread. At first, it looked like a monster, sort of like Nessy of Loch Ness.

After further review, I decided it reminded me of the mountains near Loch Ness. I recently visited Scotland so the mountains and scenery are still fresh in my mind. We didn’t see Nessy while we were there so I couldn’t really say whether it looks like the Loch Ness Monster or not, but I bet she would love a bite of this bread.

The ruins of Urquhart Castle in Scotland is what I was thinking about when I removed the baked bread from the oven. The mountains in the background provide a magnificent backdrop.

 

Urquhart Castle was built around 1230. Although it stands peaceful now, the history of the castle is filled with bloodshed. I love history, and the current caretakers of the castle (members of Historic Scotland) recreated the story really well. It was all rather surreal to me.

The English and Scottish fought back and forth for the ownership of the castle and during that time, it was restructured, rearranged and finally blown up (by government troops) during the Jacobite uprising in 1692. Such a travesty, but it remains a very beautiful and inspiring ruin in the Highlands.

 

The day we visited the castle, it was sunny one minute, then windy and rainy the next. It even hailed a little bit while we were walking around the inside of the ruins. The grey clouds in the background provided a dreamlike back drop for this ancient castle.

 

Because the weather was so unpredictable, I carried three jackets with me most of the time, along with gloves, and a backpack so I could switch out clothing when it got too cold or hot. In this photo, I am standing in one of the kitchens of the castle clothed in all three jackets. The wind is wreaking havoc on my hair, but a photo of the baker in the kitchen of the castle was a must. Of the two kitchens in the castle, this was the older one.

 

Here is the milling room showing the milling stones. They grew their own wheat, barley and corn for bread and ale. That’s my kind of place except for the whole Lordship/Serfdom thing.

 

You may not think this bread looks like the Scottish Highlands, but as the Scottish Highlands are a mound of beauty, so is this mound of bread.

 

Here is another view of the mountains just to set the stage. Can you see it now?

 

The host for this month’s BBB is Ilva of Lucilian Delights. I used the Whipped Bread formula on Ilva’s blog, but halved the ingredients to make just one loaf. I don’t normally use fresh yeast because it’s hard to find so I substituted instant dry yeast (ratio 3:1 fresh to dry yeast). I don’t have a heavy-duty stand mixer with a bubble whisk so I used a Danish dough whisk to mix the dough, but mostly I just used my hands to do the folds and turns like you would for Ciabatta. 

View the fold and turn process.

Although my bread turned out looking more like a mountain than a loaf of bread, we really enjoyed this bread as I’m sure the original inhabitants of Urquhart Castle did theirs.

 

As other bakers have commented, this bread is similar to Ciabatta, but rather than being shaped like a slipper, this bread is supposed to be twisted. I actually twisted two pieces together, but the dough wrestled free and created its own unique shape. But, hey! It had some great holes.

 

When my son tried this bread, he described it as having a deeper flavor than normal wheat. I agree, it has a delicious and nutty flavor due to the spelt flour.

 

As usual, I enjoyed baking with the Bread Baking Babes. I wasn’t able to bake with them the last several months due to my schedule so this was a simple bread to ease me back into the flow.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Sourdough Spelt Brownies

The Sourdough Surprise for May is brownies. You want to know something funny?  I don’t think I’ve ever made homemade brownies before. Can you believe it?  We’ve always just used the boxed mix to make them. I know, I know.  What’s up with that! 

I have another confession. I’m a milk chocolate fan. However, it’s not really good for you with all the sugar and other artificial ingredients so I try to limit my intake of it. I like dark chocolate when it’s mixed with other ingredients to cut down on the bitter taste, and it’s definitely better for you, but I’ve always preferred milk chocolate.

These Sourdough Brownies are made with the ancient grain Spelt. My whole grain Spelt levain was the only starter that was ready to be used so I decided to find out how it would do in this recipe. It did just fine. In addition to using the Spelt levain instead of a regular sourdough starter, I adjusted the bittersweet chocolate/cocoa powder ratio because I didn’t have quite enough bittersweet chocolate.

 

These brownies have a very pronounced dark chocolate flavor as you can imagine. They are a little bit tangy from the sourdough, and since this recipe uses less sugar, the bitter chocolate flavor shines through.  If you’re a fan of dark chocolate, then you will probably like these. I’m learning to like them. I definitely plan to make brownies again using dark chocolate, but I think I prefer a little more sugar. Next time, I might swirl some raspberry or strawberry jam through the middle to help balance out the dark chocolate flavor.

 

Sourdough Spelt Brownies

I adapted my recipe from Jenni of the Gingered Whisk’s Mega Chocolate Sourdough Brownies. Jenni adapted her recipe from Susan of Wild Yeast’s Sourdough Brownies.

Ingredients:

• 235 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 226 grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces (~2 sticks)
• 200 grams sugar
• 6 grams (1 tsp) salt
• 8.4 grams (2 tsp) vanilla extract
• 3 whole eggs, room temperature
• 105 grams cocoa powder
• 220 grams mature 100% hydration sourdough starter

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Line a metal 9x13 pan with parchment paper and coat the paper in butter (if you leave some hanging over the long 13" edges, it makes it really easy to lift the brownies out of the pan!).

In a double broiler, saucepan, or the microwave, melt the chocolate, cocoa powder, and butter. Stir it often so it does not burn.  I didn’t read the instructions all of the way before I started (you never do that, right!) so I melted all of the chocolate together rather than sifting the cocoa over the mix after whisking in the sugar and vanilla. You can follow my instructions below or use the original recipe referred to above.

 

Pour the melted chocolate/butter into a large bowl. Whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking to combine each addition. Add the starter and stir gently until it is completely incorporated.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

Cool in the pan 20 minutes (if you can), then lift the parchment paper out and allow to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.

When the brownies are completely cooled, cut into squares and enjoy!

This was a challenge for me taste wise, but I figured it was time I learned how to make homemade brownies with real dark (bitter) chocolate and sourdough to boot.

Update on my taste test: These brownies seem to improve with age. The sourdough gives them better keeping quality so even though it’s been several days since I made them, they’re not dry.  I actually like them better.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

 

I enjoyed baking along with the Sourdough Surprises baking group. 

Let’s chat about Whole Wheat Crackers

Hello and welcome! Are you’re wondering where in the world the Bread Experience has been? I’ve been to London to visit the Queen… well, not exactly, but I have been to London, and I did see Buckingham Palace, as well as other parts of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. I’m back in the States, but today I’ve jumped on the band, I mean Grain Mill Wagon to talk about baking with freshly-milled grains.

I’m continuing my discussion on baking homemade crackers. It’s seems that the cracker bug that hit me several weeks ago didn’t go away while I was in the UK. I’ve been busy making crackers ever since I got back.

I particularly like these Whole Wheat Crackers with Cardamom and Sesame Seeds. They have just a hint of cardamom to give the crackers a slightly peppery, spicy flavor.

 

I’d love for you to join me so head on over to the Grain Mill Wagon to learn how to make these Whole Wheat Crackers.

Be sure to come back in the next couple of days to learn about my travels in the UK. I’ll be sharing some lovely photos of the countryside and my adventures with my son. I’ll even throw some bread in the mix here and there.

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Sourdough Multigrain Bread with Ancient Grains & Overnight Soaker

The bread of the month for the Artisan Bread Bakers’ Facebook group is a Multigrain Bread. The original recipe, from Pastry Affair, makes a simple multigrain bread using the straight dough method. With the straight dough method, the bread is made without any preferment.

I changed things up a bit by incorporating an overnight soaker to soften the grains and a sourdough starter to ferment the dough. I used white Spelt flour instead of bread flour, Einkorn flour instead of regular whole wheat flour and my EK (Einkorn) sourdough starter. I also added a little bit of honey to sweeten the pot.

Due to the inclusion of the sourdough and ancient grains, what I ended up with was a completely different multigrain bread; full of nutrients and fiber and easier on the digestive tract.

 

I used my Einkorn starter for this recipe.  I had just fed all of my starters, but I used the Spelt and apple starters to make sourdough crackers.  The only starter I hadn’t used yet was the Einkorn starter so in the pot it went. A Spelt starter would also work well in this bread or you could use a starter made from white bread flour if you want to make it with regular wheat rather than ancient grains.

 

Sourdough Multigrain Bread with Ancient Grains & Overnight Soaker

Inspired by this Multigrain Bread from Pastry Affair

Makes: 1 Loaf

 

Ingredients:

Multigrain Soaker:

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 10 ounces tepid water

Final Dough:

• 1 cup sourdough starter (I used this Einkorn Levain)
• 2 cups white Spelt flour
• 1/2 cup whole grain Einkorn flour
• 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• ~2 ounces lukewarm water (you might need more or less water, depending on whether you use a liquid or stiff starter)
• Additional oats (and/or seeds) for garnish

* Due to the inclusion of the multigrain soaker, I added a little bit of yeast to help give some lift to the dough. 

Directions:

1) Make the Multigrain Soaker

The night before you plan to make this bread, place the oats, sunflower seeds and flax seeds in a small bowl and cover them with the water.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it sit overnight.

 

2) Mix the Dough

The next day, whisk together the Spelt and Einkorn flours, salt and yeast in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, add the multigrain soaker and sourdough starter.

 

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon, Danish dough whisk or mix on low speed on the mixer.  Add the water and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  If the dough is too dry, add a little more water, or if it is too sticky, sprinkle a little more flour until it becomes a workable dough.

 

3) Knead the Dough

Remove the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it gently. It’s easy to over knead Spelt so I only kneaded it for a short time, then I put it in a lightly greased bowl. 

 

4) Bulk Fermentation

Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the dough proof in a warm spot (about 70 degrees F.) for 3-4 hours. Fold the dough a couple of times during the first hour to help develop the gluten. 

 

5) Shape the Loaf

At the end of the bulk fermentation, gently punch down the dough and let it rest in the bowl for 10 minutes.  Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Shape the dough into a rough rectangle.

 

Fold the top third down and the bottom third up and gently press the edges together.

 

Place the loaf seam-side down in a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Using a spray bottle, spritz the top of the loaf with water and sprinkle with oats (and more seeds if you like). 

 

6) Final Proof

Cover the loaf with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it proof for another 30-40 minutes, or until it doubles in volume.

 

7) Bake the Loaf

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake the loaf for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.

 

8) Cool and slice the loaf

Remove the loaf from the oven and immediately remove it from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

 

This bread makes a good sandwich bread.  I enjoyed it toasted with cheese and with peanut butter and jelly.

 

Happy baking!

Cathy

Reflections on Baking Grain-Free Crackers

I’ve been bitten by the cracker bug. Once I started experimenting with different types of crackers, the floodgates were opened, and now I can’t seem to stop making crackers. It’s a whole new world in baking. There are so many possibilities. I’ve made crackers several times a week for the past few weeks. As can be expected, I’ve had some successes as well as some failures.

The other day, I was looking for a recipe to bake for an April Fools’ luncheon. We were supposed to bring a mock food or something that looked like something else. I had a hard time getting out of my bread box and thinking creatively for this one, but then it occurred to me that something grain-free would work. So I started looking for gluten-free or grain-free baking recipes. I finally found some grain-free crackers that looked edible.

 

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I chose these particular crackers because of the beautiful photos on  http://thenourishinghome.com.  

If you want to bake these crackers,

Look for the recipe and instructions here.  Since baking with grain-free flours is still rather new to me, I didn’t adapt the recipe at all. I used Kelly’s recipe and method for making these crackers. She has several different versions to choose from and lovely photos to boot.

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Problems are opportunities

They say that no problem is a problem, but an opportunity to learn and to improve. So what I decided to do with this post is to reflect on some of the issues I had with making these crackers and provide some helpful tips to make them better, at least from my perspective.

When I baked the crackers and tasted them, my first thought was that this was a failure. I didn’t think I liked them, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was I didn’t like. I would taste a couple and think, “Oh! these are pretty good,” but then I would eat another one and think, “what is this?” The flavor seemed okay, but they just didn’t wow me. I figured it was because they were gluten-free and I just prefer grains. 

I really wanted to like these crackers so I decided to give them a fair shake. I went to the store and bought some grain-free crackers to try and determine what I liked or didn’t like about them. I fell in love with the store bought crackers. They tasted so good. I almost ate the whole box in one sitting.

It’s the texture, silly!

The store bought crackers were made with several different types of grain-free flours and the grain-free crackers in this post are made only with almond flour so we’re not exactly comparing crackers-to-crackers, but what I determined from that taste test (for me anyway) was that it’s the texture, the crispiness, that makes the difference. The store-bought crackers were really crispy. I loved that!

At this point, I went back to the grain-free crackers that I had made and tried them again. I had rolled some of them a lot thinner than others and I found that I really liked those because they were crispy and light. It was the ones that I hadn’t rolled thin enough that I didn’t like very much. The texture was just not quite right. I’m also not sure if I like the onion flakes in these crackers, but I think that’s a matter of personal preference. You can always substitute different seasonings.

 

Roll them really thin

The key to these crackers is to roll them really thin. The thinner, the better and since you roll these out between sheets of parchment paper, it’s actually pretty easy to roll them thin. I just didn’t realize what a difference it would make, but I do now. Next time, I will roll them out thinner for sure.

 

A good starting point

I think this is a pretty good starting point for a grain-free cracker recipe and with some tweaking for personal preferences, it could work really well especially for those that aren’t able to eat wheat. If you decide to try these crackers, I would welcome your feedback on what you like or don’t like about them and what tweaks you made to enhance them.

Even though I determined that rolling the crackers thinner would improve them and make them worthy of bringing to a luncheon, I decided not to make another batch because almond flour is not cheap. I’ll experiment more with that flour another time. I brought a bowl of fruit to the luncheon instead. The bread lady with no bread made for a good April Fool’s joke for sure, but everyone enjoyed the fruit so it worked out okay in the end.

So my experiment with grain-free crackers continues…

Happy baking!

Cathy

Celebrate National Sourdough Bread Day

Today is traditionally known as April Fool’s Day, but more importantly (to bread bakers at least), it’s National Sourdough Bread Day. National Sourdough Bread Day is a great way to celebrate breads made with ‘wild yeast’. Although most people associate sourdough with the ‘sour’ breads made in San Francisco, sourdough bread doesn’t have to be sour – unless of course, you want it to be.

A lot of artisan breads are made with sourdough starters rather than using dried yeast. I love experimenting with different types of bread made with sourdough. It is very rewarding to make a bread completely from scratch using ‘wild yeast’ developed in your kitchen and maintained lovingly and stored in the refrigerator. 

I have several of these pets, as I like to call my starters, living in my refrigerator. All of my starters are made with different types of flour, and I use them in different types of bread. Learn how to make each of these starters in my sourdough starters section. My favorite starter is featured in this post.

To help you celebrate this day, I’ve highlighted some fun ways to create, maintain and use your sourdough starter to make different types of sourdough bread. I hope you enjoy.

 

Creating a sourdough starter

My favorite starter is my apple starter. Although I enjoy using the other starters, this one has special meaning because I used apples that I handpicked from an apple orchard in the North Georgia Mountains. I also went for a hike that day and it was a very memorable experience. I think about those fond memories when I use this starter.  It’s like a memory in a jar.

 

How to activate a sourdough culture

Once you’ve gone through the trouble and delight of creating your own starter, you’ll want to be sure you continue to feed it properly so that it doesn’t die in the refrigerator. Learn this easy method of activating a sourdough starter even if it has been in the refrigerator awhile and hasn’t been fed recently.

 

 

Making Sourdough Breads

This is a fun experiment. If you’re like me and you have trouble discarding your starter when you feed it, just make more bread. I made Classic Sourdough Bread using one recipe, but two different starters. You end up with lot’s of extra bread so your friends will love you.

 

Pita of the Desert

This sourdough bread is called Khubz Arabi or ‘Arab Bread’, but it’s also known as ‘Pita of the Desert’.  It is a soft, round flatbread that poofs in the oven and makes a great pocket to hold salad for a light lunch or dinner.

 

Sourdough Bagels on my mind

These Sourdough Bagels are made with a sourdough starter instead of an overnight sponge. They use the simplest of ingredients: starter, bread flour, salt, water, yeast and malt.

 

 

 

Sourdough Fantans with Jam Filling

These Fantans, made with sourdough and filled with delicious jam, were so delightful, they inspired a song. You’ll be singing it too once you taste them.

 

 

Sourdough Rye

This Sourdough Rye bread is made with toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I really liked the flavor and texture of these breads. It’s a keeper!

 

 

Sourdough Spelt Loaf with Flax Seeds

You’ll enjoy the complex flavors in this 100% Sourdough Spelt Loaf with a flax seed soaker.  Spelt is versatile and healthy and makes a great addition to breads.

 

I hope you’ll try some of these breads. If you want to bake even more breads with wild yeast, visit my Sourdough Breads section. And, if you are interested in doing some fun and different things with your sourdough starter (besides making bread), check out the Sourdough Surprises baking group.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy