This is a heavy dark peasant bread, sort of a mock rye bread. You could push it closer to rye if you want to add caraway seeds to it. It has a coarser texture, in part because of being a single rise, and a high percentage of whole wheat flour. The coloration comes from the things you see in eastern European breads; cocoa, coffee, and of course beer. To make it quicker there … [Read more...]

Pullman pans are just fun to use, and they make for a pretty impressive loaf when you bring one to the table. The pan is nearly twice as long as a normal pan, slightly narrower with taller very straight sides. It makes great sandwich bread and toast with the nice uniform shape. You can also get a lid for it, making Texas Toast, or any squared off bread you want. Using a lid … [Read more...]

Focaccia is probably the most forgiving bread to make, and therefore great starting point if you are new to yeast baking. The texture will be slightly coarse by its nature, so if your kneading isn’t perfect or whatever, it likely won’t matter. One of the keys to this bread’s deliciousness is olive oil. It gives the crust an incredible crispness and rich flavors. It comes … [Read more...]

The wonderful aroma of this bread being toasted carries a wealth of memories of Christmas. As a young teenager learning from Mummu (a Finnish term of endearment for grandma, great grandma in this case) how to grind the cardamom seed with the back of a spoon in a wooden bowl, then building the dough and bread; these are all part of the tapestry of family cooking … [Read more...]

Chinese bao are a staple, and fun, dish at most dim sum meals. Ranging between steamed or baked, and from sweet plum filling to savory spicy pork, and everything in between, they’re a very versatile dish. We slap anything between two slices of bread, and almost all European countries have a meat filled dough dish of some kind, and that doesn’t even begin to bring in pastries. … [Read more...]

A sourdough starter is not required for this bread. If you do not have one, just double the amount of yeast. If you do have one, and are familiar with using it, you have a couple choices. This recipe is a slightly quicker format and uses a small amount of additional instant yeast with your starter. It works great. If you are familiar with sourdough baking, this works just as … [Read more...]

Super easy, few ingredients, this is a great way to begin baking bread. You can do this with zero specialized equipment, other than a Dutch oven or covered casserole pot. The actual baking of bread is a combination of temperature, humidity, and time. A more humid oven will make a heavier crust. So, you can spray the loaves with water when putting them in the oven. You can have … [Read more...]

We typically assume bread has yeast, and for some that is the defining characteristic. There are yeast breads that do not have the kneading step, we will cover that in another article. We are working the other side of the street in this look at no-knead breads that use soda for leavening, Corn bread and Irish soda bread battle it out for the most well-known of this style of … [Read more...]