E6


Recipes


EZ


EE


KLMNO Bran-muffin goodness from the waffle iron Washington Cooks


Chocolate Bread Makes 4 small loaves


Here’s what makes this


bread great: It is not too sweet, and it has chocolate pieces of various size baked into the dough. It’s great as toast, slath- ered with fruit jam, and for making bread pudding. And it freezes well; see directions be- low.


Silver Spring baker Tish JAMES M. THRESHER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST BY LISA YOCKELSON A batter flecked with wheat


bran, sweetened just enough and touched with a few dewy table- spoons of unsulfured molasses creates a classic breakfast treat: the bran muffin. Yet on a leisurely but hungry


weekend morning, what you real- ly want is precisely the same flavor and composition, minus all the fiddling with a mixer and baking pan. So I figured out a non-fussy way to convert the tra- ditional batter into waffle form. With a little baking sleight-of- hand, an extra round of work can be eliminated without forsaking taste and texture. The “bran muffin” waffle born


inmy kitchen representsaperfect way to have all of that interesting earthiness in an easy griddled package. Its bran-muffin charac- teristics are simple to produce as long as you have a formula that allows for a translatable conver- sion. A combination of all-pur- pose flourandwhitewhole-wheat flour becomes the bedrock for a common-sense amount of plain wheat bran, because all-purpose flour alone does not deliver as complex a result. With baking powder and bak-


ing soda as the balancing leaven- ing agents, a tenderizing amount of buttermilk allows the dry in- gredients to blossom in the pres- ence of melted butter, vanilla ex- tract, eggs and sugar. The batter bakes beautifully between the square-gridded plates of a waffle iron. A minute or two later, a richly


textured quick bread emerges, ready to be sauced with maple syrup and toasted walnuts, slath- ered with jam or topped with a dollop of fresh, creamy ricotta cheese.


Yockelson is the author of “Choc- olateChocolate” (Wiley, 2005) and of “Baking Style,” a personal lifestyle book on the art and craft of baking at home, to be pub- lished by Wiley in 2011.


Organic unprocessed coarse bran, called miller’s bran and pack-


aged under the Shiloh Farms brand, makes this waffle batter sing with flavor. It is available at Whole Foods Markets. If you use light brown sugar instead of the evaporated cane juice


sugar, whisk the sugar first into the warm unsalted butter, then blend in the buttermilk, molasses, whole eggs and vanilla extract. For a bolder molasses flavor, increase the molasses to 3 table- spoons and reduce the amount of buttermilk to 11/3


cups plus 2 table-


spoons; vegetable oil (such as canola or soybean) may replace the melted butter; and, for a slightly less-sweet waffle, reduce the sugar to 1/4


cup. INGREDIENTS


· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour · 1/2 cup unbleached white whole- wheat flour


· 1/3 cup wheat bran (not bran cereal; see headnote)


· 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder · 1/2 teaspoon baking soda · 1/8 teaspoon salt


· 5 tablespoons evaporated cane juice sugar (may substitute firmly packed light brown sugar; see headnote)


· 7 tablespoons (7/8 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly warm


· 1 1/2 cups regular or low-fat buttermilk


· 2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses · 3 large eggs · 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


STEPS


· Whisk together the all-purpose flour, white whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large bowl.


· Whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk, molasses, eggs and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until combined.


· Pour the whisked buttermilk mixture over the flour-bran mixture and stir to form a thick, spoonable batter. Let it stand for 2 minutes.


· Preheat a 4-quadrant round Belgian waffle iron. Carefully spray the heated interior with nonstick cooking oil spray.


· Place about 3/4 cup of batter on the center of the waffle iron; close the lid and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, until just cooked through. (Do not overcook, or the resulting waffle will be dry.Without a specific heat setting choice and/or for a specific type of iron, follow the manufacturer’s


TRACY A. WOODWARD/THE WASHINGTON POST


Blog recipes l Indian-Spiced Okra l Death in the South Pacific, above


directions.)


· As each waffle finishes cooking, transfer it to a plate and serve hot.


NUTRITION: | Perwaffle (using low-fat buttermilk): 590 calories, 16 g protein, 72 g carbohydrates, 26 g fat, 15 g saturated fat, 220mg cholesterol, 520mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 22 g sugar


Recipe tested by Bonnie S. Benwick; e-mail questions to food@washpost.com


on washingtonpost.com/recipes


Wheaty ‘Bran Muffin’Waffles Makes 4 large waffles


Hall likes to measure her ingre- dients by weight. She uses nat- ural cocoa powder, not Dutch- process, and prefers cocoa from Penzeys, which she says has a lot of cocoa butter in it. For the chocolate, she likes Callebaut brand, which she buys in 1- pound bricks and cuts by hand (it is available at Sur La Table, at cake and candy stores and at some Whole Foods Market lo- cations). Smaller flakes get kneaded into the dough, but larger chunks remain intact. MAKE AHEAD: This bread


can be frozen before or after it is baked. See directions below.


INGREDIENTS


· 35 ounces bread flour, plus more for the work surface and as needed · 5 ounces light brown sugar


· 4 ounces natural unsweetened cocoa powder


· 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, unevenly chopped (some big, some small pieces)


· .45 ounce salt


· 1 packet active dry yeast (scant .6 ounce)


· 26 ounces water, between 90 and 110 degrees


STEPS · Combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, chopped chocolate


· To bake: Place a cast-iron skillet or small, shallow baking pan on an oven rack positioned on the next level below the middle rack. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


· Use a very sharp knife to make 5 shallow slashes, cut parallel on the diagonal, on the tops of the loaves. As the dough rises in the oven, these slashes will expand, giving the finished loaf a fat football shape.


JAMESMTHRESHER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well, breaking up the lumps of brown sugar as needed.


· Combine the yeast and water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook; beat on low speed. When the yeast has dissolved, add the flour-chocolate mix and knead with the dough hook attachment. At first it will look as though you have just wasted great chocolate, but soon the dough will pull together. After about 4 minutes, turn off the mixer and use your finger to poke at the dough. If it seems too soft and sticky, knead in more flour a tablespoon at a time.


· Lightly flour a work surface. Transfer the dough to the surface and knead by hand for 4 or 5 minutes.


· Use a little neutrally flavored oil to grease the inside of a large bowl. Shape the dough into a ball, place it in the bowl and cover with a damp dishcloth. Let it rise for 90 minutes to 2 hours


· or until it has doubled in size. (The temperature of the area should not be so warm that the chocolate starts to melt.)


· Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.


· Gently knock down the dough (in the bowl), then divide it into 4 equal portions. Knead each one into a ball and place on the parchment paper with enough space in between to keep the risen loaves from touching; cover with a damp cloth.When dough has almost doubled in size (about 90 minutes), it is ready to freeze or bake.


· Place the loaves in the oven (still on the cooking parchment) and toss about 1/2 cup of water into the hot skillet or pan below the bread. Close the oven immediately. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the bread has reached an internal temperature of 198 to 205 degrees.


· Transfer the loaves to a wire rack and allow them to cool to room temperature.


· TO FREEZE: Place the risen, unbaked loaves in the freezer (on the parchment-paper-lined baking sheet). After they have frozen solid, wrap the loaves individually (including the parchment under them) in plastic wrap, then wrap again in resealable plastic food storage bags. The unbaked loaves can be frozen for 2 or 3 months.


· To defrost, remove the wrapped loaves from their plastic bags and set them on a flat surface in the refrigerator (still wrapped in plastic) to defrost overnight.When the loaves have completely defrosted, carefully remove the plastic wrap. Then wake up the yeast in the bread dough with a warm, moist sauna by boiling 1/2 cup of water in the microwave on HIGH; carefully move the boiled water to one corner of the microwave, then place the unwrapped, unbaked loaf in the center of the microwave and close the door. Let it sit for 1 hour.


· After the sauna, slash and bake as directed above.


NUTRITION: | Per slice (based on 10 per loaf): 140 calories, 4 g protein, 26 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 125mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 6 g sugar


Recipe tested by Randy Richter; e-mail questions to food@washpost.com


Tish Hall’s bread engine: Homemade starter


BY BONNIE S. BENWICK Starting a starter for baking


bread, or keeping one going, can be a real source of anxiety for novice bakers. Here’s what Silver Spring baker Tish Hall recommends. Ascale is essential to have on


hand. Measure byweight: 4 ounces


ofwater, 4 ounces of bread flour (between 2/3


and 3/4 of a cup in


volume) and a pinch of active dry yeast; combine in a bowl, stirring thoroughly. Cover loosely with a few layers of cheesecloth, as the mixture needs good airflow and is likely to draw fruit flies. Let it sit at roomtemperature. When the mixture is bubbly


(in a warm room, this might take half a day), discard half of it and add another 1/2 water and 3/4


cup of cup of flour. Cover All fired up about wood essay from E1 I needed another solution: a


wood-fired brick oven, which would giveme the 750-to-850-de- gree heat thatwould produce stel- larpizza. So this past spring, when I got


an e-mail from the Bread Bakers Guild of America (yes, I joined a bakers guild), I perked up. Jeffrey Hamelman, the 59-year-old mas- ter baker at King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vt., was teaching a wood-fired-baking class. I’d never taken a class in bak-


ing,butKingArthursellsexcellent flour, and one of my bibles is Hamelman’s “Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes” (Wiley), revered by amateurs and professionals alike. So in my world, this class was akin to an invitation to Rome for a two-day audiencewiththepope. Building thekindofovenIhad


in mind would easily cost over $1,500.Nevermindwhat itmight do to our Capitol Hill back yard. Would it beworth it? In early July, I traveled to bucolic Norwich and toKingArthur’s baking education center to findout. Sated by a baguette schmeared


with local goat cheese, I arrived in class, where a fire was already roaring in the massive wood- burning oveninthe corner. My fellow classmates: a guy


fromLosAngeleswhowasalready selling bread he baked in a wood- fired oven in his back yard; a young professional baker from Ohio; a baking teacher fromZing- erman’s, the famous bakehouse in


Ann Arbor, Mich.; a high school culinary teacher from Massachu- setts; a chef from Tennessee; and several enthusiasts likemyself.No beginners, though only a few had bakedinawoodoven. As soon as Hamelman strode


in, the revelations began, starting with a simple flatbread whose dough he had mixed up in the morning fromwhole-wheat flour, water, salt and oil. This yeast-free dough had sat for eight hours.He toldustosliceoff2-ounceportions androll theminto balls. After they rested for a half-


hour, we rolled them into eight- inch disks, then folded the thin dough around a spicy tomato con- coction Hamelman had whipped upwithfeta andherbs. Now the fun began. We took


giant wooden peels and slid the flatbreads intothehotoven,about eight feet deep. My half-moon puffed up in about 30 seconds. After aminute I flipped it to dark- en the underside and then re- moved it to a piece of aluminum foil, wrapping it to keep the crust fromhardening. The aroma was intoxicating.


Some students tore into their flat- breads as soon as they were cool enoughtohandle. I gavemine five minutes and then devoured it. It wasamongthebest flatbreads I’ve eaten. Wealsomixedpizzadoughand


shaped loaves for the next day, since these would benefit from a long rise. In the process, we got tips you glean only from a baker. “The simple act of keeping your hands dry with flour prevents the


6 KING ARTHUR FLOUR


King Arthur baker Amber Eisler, left, with JeffreyHamelman, director of the King Arthur Bakery.


skin of the loaf from ripping,” which would hamper a good rise, Hamelmanremindedus. The nextmorning, Hamelman


fired up the oven again. To deter- mine whether an oven was hot enough, bakers traditionally threw in some flour to see how quickly it browned, or tossed in paper to see how fast it would darken or catch fire. “Therewas a whole genre of foods that devel- oped to let a baker knowwhenthe oven was ready,” said Hamelman, who relied on a laser thermome- ter.


Pizza was one of those foods,


and we would make it for lunch. The dough was wonderful, stretchingouteasily.Everyonedid a different topping; my baking partner and I chose tomato sauce; roasted portobello mushrooms, onions andredpeppers; andfresh Vermontmozzarella. I slid the pie deep into the oven, inches from the embers. The outer crust puffed up


quickly, and after aminute or so I rotatedthepiewiththepeel sothe other side would char slightly by


thehot fire.ThenIusedthepeelat the last minute to lift the pizza toward the dome, getting extra heat ontop. It took 2minutes. The piewas extraordinary, bet-


ter by far than anything I’d made athome. After lunch, Hamelman raked


out the coals.With the oven tem- perature falling a bit, we baked our bread: seeded loaves we’d formed the day before, and then a traditional Quebec whole-wheat loaf. Bothbakedbeautifullyand,be-


cause they were made with sour- dough, theywere still freshwhenI returned to Washington the next day.


The crust was toasted, the


crumb soft and pliable.When eat- enwithacoupleofartisancheeses I’d brought home from Vermont, thebreadsealedthedeal. I toldmy wife: “I think we’re building a brickoveninthebackyard.Maybe this summer.”


Fromartz, author of “Organic, Inc.,” blogs at www.chews- wise.com.


on washingtonpost.com Recipe finder Search more than 3,300 Post-tested recipes at www.washingtonpost.com/recipes.


and let sit at room temperature for 1 day, then repeat the dis- card-half-and-fill step. Repeat this daily for 1 week. While you are growing a


culture of baking yeast, Hall says, the yeasts in your local environment get a chance to move in as well. “Mileage may vary,” she says, because all start- ers are a little different, or they become so over time. After four to seven days, the


culture should have a sour and yeasty smell; a drop of it on the tongue will tingle. There might be some water liquid sitting on top of the culture that is yellow- ish or greenish-gray. Some peo- ple discard the liquid, but Hall mixes it in. (However, if the color is pink or orange, get rid of the liquid.) At that point, transfer the


starter to the refrigerator. After Hall measures out the amount called for in a recipe, she adds


equal amounts of water and flour to the starter and lets it sit at room temperature for eight to 12 hours before returning it to the fridge. She feeds her starter once a


week whether or not any of it gets used. The longest she has let it gowithout feeding it is two weeks (while she was on vaca- tion). If a home baker wants just


enough starter tomake a single batch of bread and does not want tomaintain a starter, Hall recommends creating a sponge of 7 ounces of water, 7 ounces of flour (between 11/4


and 11/3


WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010


cups)


and a pinch of active dry yeast. Cover and let it sit overnight. Bake with all of it or refrigerate it for up to a day. The sponge will not add the


complex flavors of sourdough, she says, but it will make for good-tasting bread. benwickb@washpost.com


Basic Flatbread Makes 12 flatbreads


Summer is a great time to


make this yeast-free flatbread, which takes minutes to cook on top of the stove. The recipe calls for chapati flour, a very finely ground whole-wheat flour that is available in Indian markets. You can use regular whole-wheat flour, but it must be sifted to re- move any large particles of bran. MAKE AHEAD: This dough


is best made in the morning for use later in the day. The balls of dough can be refrigerated in a lightly oiled resealable plastic food storage bag for 2 or 3 days; let the dough come to room tem- perature before rolling. The flat- breads can be wrapped in alumi- num foil and reheated in a 400- degree oven for about 5 minutes. Recipe adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman, a master baker and bakery director at King Arthur Flour.


INGREDIENTS


· 3 cups (14 to 14.5 ounces, depending on the flour) whole-wheat flour or chapati flour, plus more for the work surface (see headnote)


· Scant 1 1/4 cups water


· 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, plus more for the bowl · 1 1/2 teaspoons salt


STEPS


· Combine the flour, water, oil and salt in a bowl until they come together into a mass. Let sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes while the flour absorbs the water.


· Lightly flour a work surface. (All- purpose flour can be used for this; if using whole-wheat flour, make sure it has been sifted to remove any large bran particles.) Transfer the dough to


?


Have recipe questions? E-mail food@washpost.com


the work surface and knead for about 5 minutes by pushing down on and spreading the dough and then turning it over on itself, being careful not to rip the dough. It should be smooth and elastic. Form it into a ball and place in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 8 to 12 hours.


· About 45 minutes before you want to bake, spread out the dough on a lightly floured counter and form into 2 logs. Cut each log into 6 equal pieces. You should have 12 pieces of dough that weigh about 2 ounces each; evenly distribute any leftover dough as needed.


· Shape each piece into a ball. Let the balls rest for 30 minutes at room temperature under plastic wrap.


· Place a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat; cover with a lid. (Alternatively, invert a wok over a burner for cooking on the underside of the wok.)


· Liberally flour a work surface. Flatten a dough ball and dust it lightly with flour, then use a rolling pin to roll it out as thin as possible (7 to 9 inches in diameter), rotating the disk to keep it even.


· When the skillet is smoking lightly, gently lift a disk of dough. Place it in the skillet and cover immediately. Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then flip the dough. Cover and cook for 30 seconds. (If using an overturned wok, simply place the bread on top of the wok and flip it when ready.) The breads will bake in 2 minutes and should be blistered and dark in spots.


· Remove the flatbread and cover with a towel or aluminum foil to keep it from crusting over. (Dot it with butter and fold it in half if you like). Serve warm. These can be made in advance and stored in a resealable plastic container.


NUTRITION: | Per flatbread: 120 calories, 4 g protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 230mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber, 0 g sugar


Recipe tested by SamFromartz and Bonnie S. Benwick; e-mail questions to food@washpost.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50