I love love love love love to bake. For years, I've been compiling recipes from various blogs and websites. I've seen Daring Baker's Challenges before. A few months ago I looked it up and decided maybe I should try it out. I love baking, I'm always up for new recipes, so why not. This month was definitly a new reciepe!
Bread! What? I have to make bread?! Not just any bread Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!
Now, this was quite new to me. I went out picked up all the ingredients and last night, I went to it!
I was surprised how easy it was to mix it all up. Thank you kitchen aid mixer:) I popped it out and instantly got it stuck to the counter but thanks to learning how to make my grandmother's italian cookies this year, a lil more flour and some loving kneading and i ended up with a beautiful ball of dough
The reciepe said it'd double in size and double it did
I was soooooo excited. I've literally never made bread, never seen anyone make it, I was like a kid a christmas. "Look! Look!"
The next step was to break it up into portions. Now, I am not good at evening anything out. These were supposed to be six even balls of dough. i ended up with 3 sets of sizes.
while the rolls rose, i made up the topping. not so appetizing in its bowl
but its what was gonna make these Dutch Crunch Rolls so! I let it be and hung out with The Momma while I waited for it to set.
Cut to 20 minutes later and the entire house smells of heavenly baking bread
i was so excited it was cracking I had to snap a photo. this meant my first crack at baking bread was actually going well! The Momma had told me several horror stories involvoing yeast and scratch bread baking
but! first try was certainly a success! look at these babies!
not only did they look good. They tasted amazing. The Momma and I decided to wait until tonight to have sandwhiches but the wafting scent and the fantastic look of them. We had to have one. We busted one in half still warm from the oven slathered it in butter and loved it. so frikkin yummy.
Tonight, for dinner, we finished out my challenge.
The Momma had salami and cheese with tomato and swiss and a wee bit of mayo.
Myself, I had the pictured sandwich. Baby spinach, arugala, cucumbers, pickles, salami, turkey breast, american cheese, and a big yummy tomato with dijonaise. It was a monster of a sandwich and absolutley delicious. Will certianly be making this bread again in the future.
Here's the reciepe I used:
Soft White Roll
Servings: Six sandwich rolls
This recipe approximates the quintessential white sandwich roll found throughout the Bay Area. The recipe is simple, quick, and addictive.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon (1 packet) (15 ml) (7 gm/ � oz) active dry yeast
� cup (60 ml) warm water (105-110� F) (41-43�C) (No need to use a thermometer � it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch).
1 cup (240 ml) warm milk (105-110� F) (41-43�C) (We�ve tried both nonfat and 2%, with no noticeable difference)
1� tablespoons (22� ml) (20 gm/ ⅔ oz) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil (plus additional olive or vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)
1� teaspoons (7� ml) (9 gm/⅓ oz) salt
Up to 4 cups (960 ml) (600 gm/21oz) all purpose flour
Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes (The mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).
2. Add in vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together. (The photo to below is with the first 2 cups of flour added).
3. Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, as shown in the photo below (For us, this usually required an additional 1� to 2 cups of flour).4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
5. Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size (see photo comparison). 6. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions (if you�d like to make rolls) or 2 equal portions (if you�d like to make a loaf) (using a sharp knife or a dough scraper works well). Shape each into a ball or loaf and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try not to handle the dough too much at this point).
7. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.
8. Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described above. While the original recipe recommends letting them stand for 20 minutes after applying the topping, I got better results by putting them directly into the oven.
9. Once you�ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380�F/190�C/gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.
Dutch Crunch Topping
Servings: This recipe should make sufficient topping for two 9x5 loaves (23cmx13cm) or 12 rolls. If you make only 6 rolls in the first soft white roll recipe, you can cut the topping recipe in half.
We�ve provided this recipe first because it is the mandatory aspect of the challenge. Note, however, that you should not prepare the topping until the bread you�ve selected to bake is almost finished rising (~15 minutes from baking).
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (2 packets) (30 ml) (15 gm/� oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) warm water (105-115� F) (41-46�C)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm/1 oz) sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
� teaspoon (2� ml) (3 gm) salt
1� cups (360 ml) (240 gm/8� oz) rice flour **i used brown rice flour because it was all i could find but it was so fine and lovely. worked great***(white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour) (increase by 1 cup or more for home-made rice flour)
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing � spreadable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, as shown below, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.
2. Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. We tried coating it with a brush but it worked better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should err on the side of applying too much topping � a thin layer will not crack properly.
3. Let stand, uncovered, for any additional time your recipe recommends. With the Soft White Roll, you can place the rolls directly into the oven after applying the topping. With the Brown Rice Bread, the loaves should stand for 20 minutes with the topping before baking.
4. When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The Dutch Cruch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color.
7:55 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2012