No Knead Artisan Bread...

I was inspired by this Rain's Kitchen and Garden post to try out her recipe for Overnight No-Knead Bread.  Video tutorial here, and the written recipe here.

I prepared the dough Sunday evening, and baked it today.

A few things I did different:  I replaced a half cup of unbleached all-purpose flour with a half cup hard whole wheat flour.  And I baked my loaf in a stoneware casserole dish and used a parchment paper liner, rather than grease my baking dish.  

My stoneware baking dishes are some that Pampered Chef used to sell that my mother-in-law gave me many years ago.  While stoneware is very heavy, I have found it great for baking round loaves of bread in.  But if I didn't have it, I'd definitely use a dish like Rain does.  Rain's round loaf rose higher, and it looks beautiful.

My crusty and delicious artisan bread fresh out of the oven:

Nevermind the burned places.  They add flavor.   

And my makeshift "dutch oven", if you will:

Cooking with unglazed stoneware results in permanent staining like this.  It's not pretty, but I wanted to show what I use in case it's helpful to anyone else.

And the inside:

Having seen Rain's baking dish, and looking at this picture, I'm suddenly thinking I might try baking a loaf with this large piece on the bottom. It would sure be easier to handle than the way I do it..

~~~~~

Irish Soda Bread...

Somehow I've misplaced an Irish Soda Bread recipe I've been making for years, but I found I had recently clipped this one from a March, 2003 Light & Tasty Taste of Home magazine.  My clipped recipe is just called Irish Soda Bread, but it's identical to the one at the link that is called Moist Irish Soda Bread.

Mine was a tad too moist, but I'll confess...  I added mostly-melted butter instead of cutting cold butter into the flour, but I think adding a bit more flour during the short kneading time so it wasn't quite so sticky would have solved the too moist issue.  That, and baking it about 10-15 minutes longer helped (even after I cut it - never mind that it's cut and pieced back together for the picture above).

I love the floury crust as much as the slightly sweet innards. 

Since the recipe is published and accessible on the TOH site, and I'm linking to it, I trust it's okay to share it here with my comments:


Irish Soda Bread:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold butter

1 cup golden raisins  (I used dark raisins)

1-3/4 cups buttermilk  

    (I used whole milk with about ~ 1 Tbs bottled lemon juice added)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add raisins. Stir in buttermilk just until moistened. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; gently knead 6-8 times (adding flour as needed).

Place on an ungreased baking sheet (I used parchment paper over a baking stone).  Pat into a 7-in. round loaf. Using a sharp knife, cut a 1-in. cross about 1/4 in. deep on top of the loaf. Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine needed to bake about 50 minutes, but this will depend on how sticky-moist the dough is before baking).  Cool on a wire rack - if you can without cutting and tasting first. 

Or do as we do.  We don't even try to wait 'till a loaf of this is cool.  Tasting a slice of freshly baked bread is one of life's great, but simple pleasures.  😊

Some yummy (and somewhat healthier) banana bread...

With my husband back home this week (after his spending time at his mother's last week) I'm back to cooking like it matters. Yeah, I know it matters all the time, but when I get some time alone I live like I don't really believe that.

Anyway...

Knowing hubs would enjoy some banana bread, I decided today was the day to bake like it matters.

While I normally use some amount of whole wheat flour when making most baked goods these days, I can never remember if I should use hard or soft whole wheat flour in something like banana bread, so I googled it.  When I did, this recipe popped up (from Heavenly Homemakers).

I'm not a big fan of honey, in general, but I was intrigued that the recipe above only calls for 1/3 cup of  honey instead of the 1 cup of sugar the recipe I normally use calls for.   Honey and sugar have a similar Glycemic Index, but if I'm only using a third of cup of honey that's a significantly lower GI overall for this recipe than my normal one, so I figured it was a recipe worth trying.

It was significantly less sweet than what we're accustomed to, but both DH and I thought it tasted good.  Not dessert good (which my regular banana bread is), but for a healthy alternative?  Yeah!  It was okay.

Okay enough that I decided to make a second loaf.  But when I got out my cell phone (where I had originally pulled up the recipe) I had somehow lost the page.  And I couldn't find it again no matter what I looked up (forgetting what I had googled when I found the recipe).

BUT...  googling "banana bread with whole wheat flour and honey, I came across this Healthy Banana Bread recipe and even though it called for coconut oil rather than butter, and it had cinnamon and water, and it didn't have baking powder, I decided it was close enough.  

I made the second recipe, waited for it to bake then cool enough to remove from the pan for a taste test.  Even with the cinnamon in it, it pretty much tasted like the first loaf I had made.  (Edited to add...  tonight, hubs said it tasted "apple-y".  I think it was the cinnamon he was tasting and apple-y was the best he could come up with to describe it.)  It was a bit moister (than the first recipe) - even though I cooked it a tad long and it browned a bit too much on the bottom.  

But, still...  it held the same "Yeah!  It's okay" appeal.  And since (at the time) the second recipe was still on my phone I decided to print that one out to keep.

And that's when I realized I had forgotten to add vanilla.  It's also worth noting I substituted 1/4 cup of sour milk for hot water.   And I used some unbleached flour from my cupboard in place of a bit of the whole wheat flour.  I used a cup or more of walnuts ('cuz I always add more nuts than any recipe calls for), and I added some ground flax seed (probably close to 1/4 cup).

About this time, I also remembered what search terms I used when I found the first recipe above (which is why I can link to it here, and I have since printed that one out, too).

Honestly, the above recipes are both keepers, in my opinion.  I'm going to experiment with using olive oil instead of coconut oil, and next time I make it I'm going to actually measure the ground flax seed and walnuts.  If I manage to do all that so that I'm confident of my adaptations, I'll type it up and share it. 

Meanwhile,  if you're open to trying a not-very-sweet banana bread, I highly recommend the two recipes linked to above with a slight preference for the second one.   

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst..."   John 6:35