The Many Faces of Santa, Bread

It all started a few weeks ago, when Carola, one of my virtual bread-baking buddies, posted a photo of her Santa Bread. It was so cute, I had to try it.

Fast forward several weeks and several Santa’s later. That’s how many times I’ve made Santa Bread. I used the same recipe for the first two attempts, but on the third attempt, I decided the recipe and instructions were just not working for me so I switched to a different recipe. I wish I had done that earlier. It would’ve saved me a lot of grief.

My third Santa is my favorite. I call him Whiskers’ Santa because his whiskers are the most prominent feature on his face.

He looked really good before I baked him, but the oven spring changed his features. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere, but I’ll let you figure it out.

 

Here are my Santa’s of many faces.

Pirate of the Caribbean Santa Bread

For my first attempt, I used the Golden Santa Bread recipe posted on the Taste of Home site.  I changed the ingredients somewhat because I wasn’t planning on eating him.

I was singing the song “Santa Baby Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight” while I was making this Santa Bread and I must’ve hurried him too much. I didn’t want to mess up the painted egg wash so I didn’t tent the bread right away. I waited for it to bake a little before tenting the bread with foil. I think I waited a bit too long because poor Santa Baby got the edges of his beard singed.

Santa Baby looked pretty good before baking, but then the transformation began. He turned into something different than what I intended.

 

When I baked the bread, the brim of the hat rose so much that it covered up Santa’s eyes. The more I looked at him, the more I thought he looked like a pirate. Or perhaps, Cousin It dressed up as Santa Claus. No disrespect to pirates or Santa (or Cousin It for that matter), but this is what the bread looks like to me.

The recipe was pretty easy to follow until you got to the part where the instructions were missing (between step 4 and step 5).

Here are some photos of the process. Since some of the shaping instructions were missing from the article on the Taste of Home site, and I couldn’t find them anywhere else, I just winged it.

Using the larger half of dough, form an elongated triangle for Santa’s head and hat.	Shape the beard into a flat round, and shape one ball for the nose and the other ball for the pom-pom. (balls not shown)
Cut the beard into strips using scissors, a pizza cutter or a bench knife.	Place the beard on the bottom of Santa’s face and twist and curl the ends.
Shape the moustache and cut the ends into small strips. Place mustache above the beard and place one small ball above the mustache for the nose.	Roll out a narrow piece of dough for the hat brim. I decided to do a 2-strand braid.
Cut 2 slits for the eyes and insert two raisins into the slits. Fold tip of hat over and add another ball for the pom-pom. Position the brim under the hat.	Beat egg yolk. Brush over the face, beard, mustache and hat brim. Add the food coloring to the egg yolk and brush over hat, nose and cheeks. I added to brim as well, but I should’ve left the brim plain.

 

About painting with egg yolk: I used egg yolk (per the instructions) for painting the face, nose and hat, but it was really dark. I painted the face first with egg yolk, then I added food coloring to the egg yolk and painted the nose and hat. If I was to make the painted version again, I would dilute the egg yolk with some egg white (or water) and leave the brim unpainted.

 

Pepé Le Santa Bread

The second time I made this bread, I used the same recipe, but omitted the painted egg wash. I was fairly pleased with this bread except for the hat.  When I was forming the hat, I didn’t stretch it over enough. It didn’t rise very well in the oven so it ended up being a triangle instead of a hat. I think I prefer Santa’s hat on the first version.

The more I looked at this Santa while I was photographing him, I thought he looked rather French.

The voice of the cartoon character Pepé Le Pew kept playing over in my head. This Santa doesn’t look like a skunk, but that image just stuck with me (and I couldn’t think of any other French characters) so I decided to name him Pepé.

 

Whisker’s Santa

This Santa Bread is made from the Whimsical Santa on the Martha Stewart site.  I followed the recipe and instructions (or so I thought). They were really easy to follow.

However, I think I needed to let it proof on the counter a bit longer before adding the egg wash and baking it because my version is a little more whimsical than I had expected.

 

I loved the dough for this Santa. It was so easy to work with. It includes some rye flour which gives it a wonderful color. I don’t want to eat him, but I sure have been tempted because this bread actually looks good enough to eat.

Here are some photos of the process for making this bread.

Divide dough into 1 one pound piece and 1 two pound piece.	Form larger piece into a cone; from the smaller piece form two balls for nose and pom-pom, the moustache, brim and beard and eyes.
Stretch small end of cone, and curve it to one side to form cap. Attach ball to end of cap and place the other ball for the nose. Insert raisins into rounds and press onto face to form eyes.	Using a knife, cut vertical slits in large half round, to make the beard. Attach to lower half of face.
Cut horizontal slits in the smaller round; gather in center, and press into face to form the mustache and mouth.	After bread proofs, brush face and beard with egg yolk. Add food coloring to egg yolk & brush hood & tip of nose.
After the bread bakes, brush apple jelly on the brim and pom-pom and sprinkle finely shredded dried coconut or kataifi. I sprinkled a little on his mustache for kicks.	Here he is… my Whimsical Whiskers’ Santa!

 

I had fun and learned a lot about what not to do while making these breads. Hopefully, my photos and tips will save you some grief if you want to try your hand at making one of these Santa’s.  If you do decide to try it, please let me know how it goes.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

There’s no bread like Home-Milled

Be it ever so humble, there’s no bread like home-milled whole wheat. 

Several weeks ago, Golden Wheat Farms sent me a sample of hard red winter winter wheat berries.  I milled the grains into flour and planned to use the flour right away, but I couldn’t decide what bread to make. I wanted to use it in something special. I usually freeze home-milled flour so it doesn’t go rancid, but this particular flour sat in a sealed container on my counter for a couple of weeks. It has been cold in my kitchen so it was just fine.

After waiting all this time, I decided to make a humble loaf of whole wheat bread using the simplest of ingredients. I wanted to taste the wheat flavor and not mask it with anything else.

This Whole Grain Artisan Loaf is made with home-milled whole wheat flour, water, salt and yeast. What brings out the flavor is the overnight poolish. 

 

This loaf was so easy to make. As with most breads I’ve made recently, this one was made completely by hand. I mixed the poolish the night before and let it sit at warm room temperature overnight and then started the final dough the next afternoon. The bread was ready by early evening.  Most of the time was spent fermenting the dough.

I brought the bread with me to visit a friend.  My friend is a very gracious taste tester.  He’s tasted a lot of my failures and successes, but this time he was delighted when he took a bite. He said it reminded him of the bread he ate growing up in Eastern Europe. I believe he was referring to a miche because that’s what this bread reminds me of as well. I gave him the rest of the loaf.  A couple of days later, I was missing the flavor of this bread so I made another loaf.

 

Home-Milled Whole Wheat Bread

Makes: 1 Loaf

I made the first loaf with an overnight poolish of sifted (about 85% extraction) whole wheat flour and water and a pinch of yeast. The second loaf was made with unsifted whole wheat flour.  I used a new triangle proofing basket for the first loaf.  I shaped the second loaf into a boule and proofed it on parchment paper.  I used different scoring patterns on each loaf.  I liked them both.

Adapted from: Bread Science, the chemistry and craft of making bread by Emily Buehler

 

Sponge:

Whole wheat flour (sifted once or unsifted)	187 g	1 2/3 cups
Water, lukewarm	187 g
Instant yeast	a pinch	a pinch

 

Final Dough:

Whole wheat flour	187 g	1 2/3 cups
Sponge	374 g	use all of it
Water*	140 g	2/3 cup
Instant yeast	1/2 tsp.	1/2 tsp.
Sea salt	2 tsp.	2 tsp.

* For the first loaf, I used 140 g plus an additional tablespoon or so of water in the final dough. For the second loaf, I only used 100 g of water in the final dough.

 

Prepare the Sponge:

Prepare the sponge 12 to 15 hours before you plan to mix the final dough. The water should be about 50 to 55 degrees F. or warmer if your house is cold. The final temperature should be about 65 degrees F.

Cover the sponge and let it rest at room temperature. 

 

Mix the Final Dough:

Mix the ingredients using a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon.  The second time around, I found it helpful to add the sponge to the bowl first, and break it up with some of the water before adding the dry ingredients. Don’t add all of the water at this point because you may not need all of it. Add in flour and water gradually to make a workable dough.  Knead the dough for a few minutes on a lightly floured counter.  It will still be a bit tacky.  Place it in a clean bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a towel.

 

Bulk Fermentation:

Let the dough bulk ferment for 2 hours. After 1 hour, fold the dough and place it back in the bowl.  Cover the bowl and let the dough proof for another hour.

Shape the Loaf:

When it is fully risen again, shape the dough into a boule and place seam side down in a floured banneton (proofing) basket for the final proof.  I decided to test my new triangle proofing basket on this loaf.  I dusted the basket with corn flour and placed the loaf in it to rise.

Alternately, shape the dough into a boule and let it rise on a floured board or parchment paper.  As you can see from the photo below, I don’t like to waste parchment paper so I’m reusing it (again).

Cover the loaf so it doesn’t dry out.

 

Proof the Loaf:

Let the dough proof until it is soft and full of gas. Poke the dough. If it leaves an impression and doesn’t spring back, the dough is ready. I let my loaves proof for about 45 minutes to an hour.

I wasn’t sure if the dough would fill up the triangle basket, but it did.  I pressed it down lightly to fill in the corners.

Prepare the oven for baking:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. with a baking stone on the bottom rack and a steam pan underneath or a cast iron skillet on the top rack.

Score the Loaf:

Gently turn the loaf out of the basket and onto parchment paper. Score the loaf in the pattern of your choice. I used a Longuet lame to score straight patterns on the triangle loaf and the Adour lame to score around the top of the loaf like I did on the Cuban Bread but this time I added some scoring around the sides of the loaf as well.

 

Baking the Loaf:

Slide the loaf (on the parchment paper) onto the preheated baking stone.  Add hot water to the steam pan or several ice cubes to the iron skillet. Bake the loaf for 30 to 40 minutes.  The crust will be brown and the bottom should sound hollow when thumped.

 

Cool the Loaf:

Cool the loaf on a wire rack to allow the air to circulate below the bread. Then slice and enjoy. 

Here are the crumb shots for both loaves. The first loaf was a little more hydrated so it had some holes.  I used less water for the second loaf so it had a tighter crumb. They both tasted delicious.

 

I really enjoyed the red winter wheat from Golden Wheat Farms. I appreciate the opportunity to test it. It performed really well in this bread. 

Even though these loaves are made with the simplest of ingredients, they both tasted really good.  The first loaf tasted good plain and dipped in oil and herbs.  I enjoyed the second loaf with just butter or peanut butter.

 

I’m sharing these loaves with:

BYOB - Il Cestino del Pane

Yeastspotting

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Speedy Gonzalez Spelt Bread with a Hat

The Back to the Future, Buddies revisited Cuban Bread this month. Carola, the hostess of the group, called it Speedy Gonzalez Bread because you can make it in about 2 hours (from mixing the dough to taking it out of the oven). I thought that name was very appropriate.

Since I’ve made Cuban Bread before and this version is made with spelt, I decided my bread should be named Speedy Gonzalez Spelt Bread.

 

Cuban Bread is generally made with a small amount of lard or fat which is what differentiates it from French and Italian Breads. It is typically shaped long like a baguette, not in a round shape. So, as Carola surmised, this bread wouldn’t be considered true Cuban Bread, but it sure is good.

These round loaves would make great bread bowls. I thought about making bread bowls to hold the white turkey chili I made from leftover Thanksgiving turkey, but my son wanted to take some bread back with him to school. I ended up making two bigger loaves so they would be sliceable.

Refer to Renee’s post, if you want to see how these loaves can be shaped and served as bread bowls.

 

Cuban Spelt Bread

My original blog post for this Cuban Bread can be found here.

Carola made several different versions of this bread. Visit her blog for more details.

Makes: 2 medium round loaves or 4 smaller loaves

Ingredients:

• 460 g all-purpose spelt flour, plus additional for dusting
• 175 g whole grain spelt
• 11 g instant yeast
• 15 g (1 T) Kosher salt
• 25 g (2 T) raw sugar
• 60 g ground flax seeds
• 420 g lukewarm water, more if necessary
• Sesame or poppy seeds for sprinkling, optional

 

Directions:

1) Mixing the dough

You may use a stand mixer for this part, but I prefer to do it by hand.

Place 300 g all-purpose spelt and 175 g whole grain spelt in a large mixing bowl. Add the instant yeast, salt, sugar and ground flax seed meal. Make sure the salt doesn’t touch the yeast. Using a wire whisk or large spoon, stir until the dry ingredients are well blended.

Pour in about half of the warm water and stir with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add in the remaining water and work in the remaining flour (using fingers if necessary), a little at a time until the dough takes shape and is no longer sticky. I only used about 420 g of water. You may need more or less depending on the type of flour used.

 

2) Kneading the Dough

Sprinkle the work surface with flour. Work in the flour as you knead, keeping a dusting of it between the dough and the work surface. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and feels alive under your hands. Use a light hand if you are working with spelt.

 

 

3) Bulk Fermentation

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and put in a warm (26-37°C/80-100°F) place until double in bulk. I let mine proof for about 30 minutes in a proofing box at 80 degrees F. The original recipe says to let if proof for 15 minutes, but I was preparing the chili so I let it proof a little bit longer.

 

4) Shaping the Loaves

Punch down the dough, turn it out on the work surface, and cut into two pieces.  Shape each piece into a round and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

 

5) Preparing the Loaves for Baking

If you’re using seeds, now is the time to add them. Spritz the loaves with water and sprinkle the sesame or poppy seeds over the top. I used black sesame seeds. I found that using my index finger to pick up the seeds and gently press them into the spritzed loaves made the seeds stick better. I added the seeds on top and on the sides.

 

6) Scoring the Loaves:

With a sharp knife, razor, or lame, slash an X on each of the loaves or score them using the pattern of your choice.

I used my new Mure & Peyrot Adour lame to score a design I’ve been wanting to try. This lame is designed for curved scoring so it was perfect for this particular method.

For this scoring technique, take the lame (or razor blade) and slide it around the top of a round loaf to form a top. If you score it at the correct angle, the edges of the top will develop a sharp ear while baking. I still need some practice at that. Mine ended up looking like a hat with rounded edges, but for my first try, I’m okay with that.

 

7) Baking the Loaves

Place the baking sheet on the middle shelf of a cold oven. Place a pan of hot water on the shelf below, and heat the oven to 205°C/400°F. The bread will continue to rise while the oven is heating. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until the loaves are a deep golden brown. Thump on the bottom crusts to test for doneness. If they sound hard and hollow, they are baked.

 

6) Cooling the loaves

Cool the loaves on a wire rack for about an hour before slicing. My loaves cooled while the chili was cooking. They were ready to be eaten when we were ready for them. I like it when that happens.

 

I had forgotten how easy this bread was to make. It was the perfect bread for holiday weekend baking.  The spelt adds wonderful texture and flavor without making the bread heavy. We enjoyed this loaf with the turkey chili.

Would you like to bake with the Back to the Future, Buddies bread baking group? Visit Carola's website, "Sweet and That's It" (or click on the image below) for details.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Gluten-Free Buckwheat-Quinoa Loaf

I’ve been working on this Gluten-Free Buckwheat-Quinoa Loaf all month. This is the fifth rendition, and I believe it’s finally ready for primetime.

I have a relative who recently went gluten-free. She hosted Thanksgiving Dinner for our extended family last weekend. I worked all month to get this recipe down so I could bring her some gluten-free bread.

My relative is not wheat intolerant so I prepared the bread in my kitchen. However, I used separate bowls and utensils and instead of grinding the grains (for the final loaf) in the grain mill I use for wheat grains, I used store-bought buckwheat and quinoa flour. 

I learned about this method for making gluten-free artisan Buckwheat bread in the November issue of Bread Magazine. I was so excited when I saw it because it actually looked like bread.

The first time I made it, I was not impressed. It tasted rather blah.  I thought maybe I had forgotten the salt.

Chris Stafferton, the creator of this bread, calls it honest gluten-free bread. I remember thinking, it may be honest, but isn’t it supposed to be edible too.

I decided to make a couple of changes to see if I could keep the bread honest, and give it a bit of flavor at the same time. Keeping in mind that I don’t know very much about making gluten-free breads. I made it several different times and each time was a little bit different. I’ve outlined each attempt below.

 

1st try 11/2/13 – Buckwheat Loaf

This version was made with buckwheat flour and an overnight sponge of buckwheat flour, water and a pinch of yeast. For this experiment, I used buckwheat flour that I had milled in my grain mill from hulled buckwheat. I wasn’t planning on giving this loaf to anyone so it didn’t matter if it came in contact with any wheat residue left in the mill.

I was so excited when I took the loaf out of the oven and saw the oven spring. I did a little jig and scared my dog. Charlie was helping in the kitchen but decided he was done after that and he asked to go out. This was before I tasted the loaf.

After the loaf cooled, I sliced it and tasted a bite. It looked and tasted like a sponge. It was time to go back to the baking board.

 

2nd try 11/5/2013 – Buckwheat/Quinoa Loaf

For the second attempt, I did things a little bit differently. Instead of making the sponge with buckwheat flour, I used quinoa flour. I incorporated the home-milled buckwheat flour again in the dough, but I added more salt and a little bit of honey. I also reduced the water a little bit. I was pleased with the results, but it had a bit of an aftertaste. I wanted to get rid of that, if possible, so I moved on to the next experiment.

 

3rd try 11/9/2013 – Buckwheat Loaf

Since the Buckwheat/Quinoa Loaf had an aftertaste, I went back to the source; the original recipe. I decided that part of the problem with the first attempt was my timing was off.

I paid close attention to the timing this time. I made the sponge and the final dough with home-milled buckwheat flour and added more salt and some honey like I did with the second loaf.  I also reduced the amount of water. It was definitely an improvement, but still not quite what I wanted.

 

4th try 11/15/2013: Quinoa/Buckwheat Loaf

For the next attempt, I used 50 percent buckwheat flour and 50 percent quinoa flour in the sponge and in the final dough. I incorporated the same amount of salt as in versions two and three, but this time I added agave nectar instead of honey. I also used less water. I forgot to take a photo of the crumb, but the texture was similar to the second loaf. I didn’t like this version very much so I let the birds have this loaf.

 

5th try 11/22/2013: Buckwheat-Quinoa Loaf

I was starting to wonder if I would ever get the right combination, but I decided to try again. This time, I incorporated less quinoa flour. The quinoa flour label indicated you could add up to 50 percent, but in my opinion that was too much – at least for this bread.

I had run out of home-milled buckwheat flour so I used buckwheat flour that I had ordered online. This buckwheat flour was milled from unhulled buckwheat which I believe made the difference. I used hulled buckwheat in the previous attempts.

Using less quinoa flour helped to eliminate the bitter aftertaste (I think) and the flour milled from unhulled buckwheat added more flavor. I didn’t reduce the water because this buckwheat flour soaked up more water. However, I did increase the salt (as before) and added some honey. This version proved to be the winning combination. It had good flavor and nice oven spring.

 

Now I suppose you’d like to know how I made it, right? 

Here you go…

 

Gluten-Free Buckwheat Quinoa Loaf

Makes: 1 Loaf

Adapted from: Gluten-Free Buckwheat Artisan Bread by Chris Stafferton

Poolish:

• 108 g Buckwheat flour (made from unhulled buckwheat)
• 42 g Quinoa flour
• 150 g warm water
• .5 g (a pinch) instant yeast

 

Final Dough:

• 150 g Buckwheat flour
• 50 g Quinoa flour
• 15 g chia seeds
• 15 g psyllium husk
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 195 g water
• 2 tsp honey
• All of the poolish

 

Prepare the overnight poolish:

Combine 150 g of warm water and a pinch (or 2) of instant yeast and let it rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Mix in the buckwheat and quinoa flours to form a wet paste. This mixture reminds me more of the texture of clay rather than a poolish. It also looks like clay.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow it to ferment at room temperature for about eight hours.

The poolish seems to work better at a cooler room temperature (64 to 68 degrees F.) than I normally use for wheat bread (70 to 75 degrees F.)  It also performs better if you only let it ferment for about 10 hours max. The first time I made this bread, I let the poolish and the final dough ferment longer due to my schedule and the texture was more like a sponge than bread.

 

Mix the final dough:

Grind the CHIA seeds in a coffee grinder.  If you don’t have a coffee grinder, feel free to soak the CHIA seeds in water until softened. Just be sure to reduce the amount of water used in the final dough.

Here are the dry ingredients. The CHIA seeds are in the small green bowl on the left. The milled CHIA is in the small white bowl.  The psyllium husk is in the 2nd green bowl (from the left) and the salt is in the last green bowl on the right.

 

Mix the dry ingredients together gently with a wire whisk to ensure there are no clumps of milled seeds.

 

Add the remaining water to the poolish and the dry ingredients. Mix well using a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk.  The dough will be stiff, but workable. You may not need all 195 g of the water. I held back about 50 g of the water initially and then added it in gradually.  For this final version, I used all of the water; however, on some of the previous attempts, I only used about 150 g of the water.

 

Bulk fermentation:

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the dough rise for one hour in a warm place. I placed the dough in a proofing box at 75 degrees F. You can also place it in the oven with the light turned on.

 

Shaping the loaf:

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it for a few minutes. You may need a little extra flour for dusting.

I shaped the dough into a batard shape. It seemed to do really well in this shape.  To form the batard, flatten the dough out on the counter or board and form into a rough round. Bring the bottom of the round to the center and and gently press down using the outside edge of you hand. Fold the top of the round down and slightly overlap the bottom of the loaf. Gently pinch the seams together using the outside of your hand and your fingertips if necessary.

Place the loaf seamside down on a baking sheet or parchment paper sprinkled with buckwheat flour. This dough is pretty easy to work with so you can adjust the shape and make the ends more pointed if you like.

Final Proof:

Cover the loaf and let it rise in a warm place, draft-free place for about 2 hours. I put the loaf in the proofing box at 75 degrees F.

Prepare the loaf for baking:

Preheat the oven to 450* degrees F. for 30 to 45 minutes with a baking stone on the bottom rack and a steam pan underneath or a cast iron skillet on the very top rack. You can also bake this loaf directly on a baking sheet if you prefer, but you will still need to bake it at a moderately high temperature.

* I baked this loaf at different temperatures and found that it did best when I preheated the oven to 450 and then reduced it to 425 degrees F. after spritzing it with water. You may need to experiment with the oven temperature to find what works best for you.

Score the top of the loaf before placing it in the oven.  This will allow the loaf to expand and minimize the tearing of the crust. I used a lame to score this loaf, but you can also use the tip of a sharp knife.

Bake the loaf:

Slide the loaf (on the parchment paper) onto the baking stone.  Add 3 or 4 ice cubes to the cast iron skillet or steam pan, if using, and close the oven door. Open the door and spritz the oven walls with water. Immediately close the door. Repeat the spritzing a couple more times in 30-second intervals, then turn the oven down to 425 degrees F. Bake the loaf for 30 to 35 minutes or until browned and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. The internal temperature of the loaf should be 206 degrees F. when it is ready.

 

Cooling and slicing the loaf:

Remove the loaf from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing and serving.

 

So after all that, I took this loaf to the family party, but no one wanted to try it. I should say none of the gluten-eaters would try it, except my oldest sister and she only took a bite.  Everyone else just looked at me like “Who me! I’m not going to try it, you eat it!”  Remember that commercial where they always say “Give it to Mikey he’ll eat it?” That’s about what happened.  Lol. 

My gluten-free relative did try it. She said it reminded her of rye bread.  It’s a bit dense so I can see that.

This loaf isn’t a fluffy and light roll, but if you’re looking for honest and edible gluten-free bread, then this just might fit the bill. 

Happy Baking!

Cathy