Breads and speculoos / veganmofo 2009

I want to say upfront that I haven't been sent a review copy of the cookbook I'm about to mention (darn - I'd love to review it). It's just that the authors have developed a bread baking style that fits perfectly with the theme of this blog. Following their method couldn't be easier, and I've been playing with their recipes since their first cookbook, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" was published. I used their technique, but made the recipes healthier by using whole grains, less salt, etc. Now they've come up with a new book called, "Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day," and of course I watched their video, and made bread. I haven't actually seen the new book yet, but I know it has recipes using whole grains, fruits and veggies, plus a chapter on gluten-free baking. It's not a vegan cookbook, but probably easy for a vegan cook to adapt the recipes.

The bread pictured above was made from the basic recipe. I didn't have any unbleached flour on hand so I subbed semolina flour. For the topping I used a mix of sesame seeds, caraway seeds, dill seeds and crushed red pepper. The bread was delicious with the kind of springy texture I love, and it looked very pretty.



The dough - a rather wet dough - is mixed and stored in a container in the refrigerator, and taken out in blobs whenever a bread is needed.



Tonight I needed to make a bread with the speculoos spice mix I got from Mihl's blog. (Are you reading this, Mihl?) I grabbed a blob of dough and rolled it into a rectangle. I mixed one tablespoon of speculoos spice mix, one tablespoon of cocoa, three tablespoons of evaporated cane juice and about 1/2 cup of raisins, and spread it onto the dough. The dough was then rolled up and the edges sealed. You can see from the photo I didn't do a very even job - perhaps I was rushing - but the taste is delicious.

The authors will be in Seattle Monday night to do a reading and book signing and I hope to be there. I doubt they'll be talking about speculoos!

How I learned to make pizza

When I was a pre-teen/early teen, my late father owned an Italian restaurant. Other than pizza and shrimp salad, I have no memory of what was on the menu. Those were the only things I ever ate there and pizza was the main thing. I really loved the pizza. When I discovered that my father was making big vats of pizza dough in the restaurant basement, I was shocked. No one had ever told me that HE was making it. I couldn't believe it. My father was not a cooking - cleaning - help - around - the - house kind of guy. He was a man who prided himself on never having changed a diaper for any of his three children. He went to work and came home and we kids were mostly supposed to not bother him.

When I found out about the pizza dough I was beside myself. I couldn't stop pestering and begging him to make pizza at home. After a couple months of incessant nagging he finally agreed, and this was the start of pizza making at our house. He made the dough and it was my job to grate the cheese (in those days real cheese) and make the sauce. I was probably about 11 or 12 at the time but I still remember it perfectly. It was an uncooked sauce that doesn't sound good but made a delicious pizza. I put tomato paste into a bowl and thinned it with water until it would drop from a spoon. I added garlic salt and oregano and a little sugar until it tasted like pizza sauce. It had to be a little more seasoned than usual so it would be flavorful on the baked pie.

Of course, now I prefer to have some yummy leftover tomato sauce on hand when I make pizza but if I don't...well... I'm not above opening a can of tomato paste and quickly making a sauce. I use granulated garlic or fresh smashed and minced garlic, chili powder and oregano. Maybe some dried onion flakes will be added or some hot pepper flakes. But a jar of Enrico's Pizza Sauce or Muir Glen organic pizza sauce are also reasonable alternatives to homemade.

I still love pizza, and have posted a recipe before this one. It was made with a dough based on Peter Reinhart's mimimal-yeast, slow-rising recipes from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," a book I love, love, love, and highly recommend to serious and aspiring bread bakers. The breads and pizzas I bake based on the recipe I've worked out for my bread machine (forgive me Mr. R), are stellar. The pizza is fast, but the breads, while not requiring much hands-on time, take all day to rise before I bake them on my stone. The pizza is the thin and crispy crust type and incredibly good.
Here's another idea for a crust based on a fast and easy bread I've been experimenting with lately. It makes a softer, but delicious crust with little fuss - no bread machine needed. I used my variation of the recipe, but the original recipe and instructions are found here. To make pizza, you should let the dough rise once in the bowl, and then form the crust. I used a pizza pan for the crust because I thought the dough was too soft to get it easily onto the pizza stone, especially covered with all the toppings. Let the crust rise about a half-hour before adding the toppings. I used tomato sauce, Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet mozzarella, crimini mushrooms, broccoli, onions and sausage crumbles. I pre-heated the oven to 475 and baked the pizza for 3 minutes before turning the oven down to 350 and baking until done - about 20 minutes. Bake the pizza near the bottom of the oven for the best crust and check it for doneness before the whole baking time is up. The recipe makes two breads so I made one pizza and one bread.

Ten days in Seattle (part 1)

We were just in Seattle visiting family (oldest son N, daughter-in-law T, middle son A, girlfriend E. The occasion was to meet N&T's new baby, our first grandchild. Babycakes is fabulously adorable at five weeks old, and we had a terrific time helping out around the house and taking care of her. The delicious-looking veggies above were knitted for Babycakes by the very talented E. One rattles, one crackles—all are pleasingly soft and cuddly.

I could talk all day and night about the scrumtious baby but, this is a vegan food blog, and Seattle is a vegan's paradise so the rest of the posts concerning Seattle will be about food. The nature of the trip was more home-cooking than restaurant-going, but we did manage a few ventures out with Babycakes in tow. We cooked from this blog and others and even watched a cooking show that should result in a carrot cake at some future date. There were restaurant foods that I want to reproduce at home, too, but that will have to wait.
First, a little back story. With all the snow we've had, we encountered problems with a leaking porch roof. Then, two days before departure, a downstairs front room began dripping from the ceiling. We called our roofer who said water had leaked in from the porch roof. We called a house remodeling and roofing company who said it was from an ice dam. Both said it would have to drip out and then we could do repairs but not to worry. Ha. I wanted to stay home until it was resolved but Ken convinced me to go and he would follow as soon as possible. The night before departure we were in bed and I said, "did you hear that?" Ken said, "I didn't hear anything." I said, "I heard a ker-plunk." He ran downstairs and called me immediately to see that a large part of the ceiling had fallen and water was dripping many places other than in the buckets I had arranged in the room. We cleaned up the mess as best we could. All the furniture was already in the living room and hall, the rug was a disaster. Ken called the insurance company. In the morning, after taking me to the airport, he called our plumber for advice and a disaster recovery company was suggested. They discovered a slowly leaking pipe in the wall coming from the upstairs bathroom. The plumber came and fixed the pipe, the leak stopped and the disaster people set up air and infrared machines, or whatever, to dry out the ceiling and kill the mold. Ken left on Tuesday and the machines were removed on Thursday. Whew. What a mess. Guess we won't be having company for a while.

Friday, my first day in Seattle, I made a batch of ginger bars . For dinner we had some delicious leftover vegan paella that T's mom had made when she visited, and froze. She doesn't use recipes so I can't provide one but it tasted great. The next day I baked "Outrageously Easy BIG Bread" from vegweb. I found a link to the recipe on my friend Claire's blog. I pretty much followed the recipe except I used half whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour. It was as easy as described and had a nice texture and taste, but it was a little too salty for me. It was so easy that I began to wonder why I use a bread machine at home. (Just kidding-I know why...)

Seriously, it was really easy. I think using hot water made the dough form much more quickly than cool water does. Kneading it was no problem - I wanted the dough to be kneadable, but still soft. I also wanted to use less yeast and have it rise longer. This fits into my schedule better as I was able to let it rise as long as I wanted until I was ready to form the loaves. It also improves the texture. As long as you use a big bowl, you can pretty much let it rise as long as you want. I think I left it at least four hours on one of the rises. I baked the bread two more times in Seattle and again today at home and changed it a little each time. The original recipe can be ready in two hours but I prefer my version. I use three cups whole wheat flour for the first addition and three cups unbleached (or one cup whole wheat and two cups unbleached) for the second. I use one scant tablespoon of yeast, two scant teaspoons of salt and 1/4 cup of olive oil. I use enough flour to make a soft but kneadable dough and knead it briefly right in the bowl. I cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again then form the loaves. I let the loaves rise about 1/2 hour or until double. I preheat the oven to 475˚ and bake the loaves on a stone. I bake for four minutes and then turn the oven down to 350˚ and bake for about 25 minutes. This is a very soft and delicious bread. Today I made it with caraway seeds but I want to try adding kalamata olives next time. The instructions from the link "Outrageously Easy BIG Bread" are very complete so there's no need to repeat them here.

That night for dinner I made braised greens with tofu, cashews, and raisins over polenta. I love this recipe. T doesn't like raisins so I used dried apricots instead. I made a double recipe which served five big eaters generously and provided lunch for three. I put my youngest son, J, to work making steamed carrots flavored with dill and a small amount of sugar and olive oil. No one could resist the bread so we had that too.