Chocolate Walnut Loaf : Sometimes a Girl's Gotta Have Chocolate, Loaf 4

So this week I decided to try something a little different. Originally the idea of this was a chocolate chip bread, but I quickly learned that it seems that's fairly impossible in a bread cycle. So this loaf instead became chocolate walnut instead, tahdah!

Our cast of characters:

1 1/3 cups water

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar (I used Splenda for baking)
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast (I would suggest trying a teaspoon and a half for this loaf!)
1/2 cup walnuts halves
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I prefer Ghirardelli)

First, into the machine went the wet ingredients. My vanilla extract happens to be clear, but you can tell by the lovely smell of vanilla that doesn't transmute over the inter-webs that it is in the pan. As per usual, I used "I can't believe it's not butter" for baking, but you could use plain old butter or margarine. We prefer ICBINB in our house. I chopped the butter roughly to help it distribute in the bread, and let it come to room temperature.

Shortly after that I discovered a fatal error in bread making.

Oh no, almost out of flour! Luckily I had just enough for this loaf through scooping some out of the plastic bag I keep the bag of flower inside, but it was barely enough. How am I suppose to make 52 loaves if I let myself run out of flour? Harrumph! This will need to be fixed soon my dear readers, never you fret.

After that, all the dry ingredients go in except the chocolate chips and the walnuts. I happened to put the splenda straight into the liquid before adding the flour. It made a satisfying fizzle as it dissolved. It looked kind of like the bubbles when you pour lemonlime soda into a clear glass? An oddly strange and satisfying sound. Make a little volcano, and put your yeast in last. Set the machine to the sweet setting, and I set my crust setting to light.

By now, you might be wondering what about the chocolate chips and walnuts? Didn't we forget them? Ah dear reader, it's now time to discover the raisin beep. You may have noticed it before... You set the machine, walk away, and about half an hour later the machine starts beeping all crazy. You wander over to find out what all the crazy beeping is about, yet their seems to be nothing going on other than the dough is finishing kneading. Shrugging your shoulders, you wander away and hopes it doesn't set your kitchen on fire. (Not that I'VE ever done this before).

This strange beeping, dear reader, is the raisin beep. The raisin beep can be used for any ingredient you want distributed throughout the bread, but not pulverized to smithereens. Pretty much anything you put in the machine at the beginning will be kneaded and slammed against the sides of the machines until only crumbs are left. This beep is the right time to add ingredients like raisins, nuts chunks, or chocolate.

So keep your ears open, and when the machine beeps drop in the nuts and the chocolate chips. The second time the machine beeped, the loaf was done, hooray!

This particular loaf rose.... a lot... I was a little concerned that it might pop the top of the bread machine, or get stuck all over my nice see thru window. I would recommend decreasing the amount of yeast to 1 1/2 teaspoons to keep it from going quite so crazy.

The loaf was quite swirled on the bottom.

Swirled on the outside...

 

Upon slicing it open, I was met with a marbled squishy delight. Though their were no chunks of chocolate, their was a nice chocolate flavor, and the walnuts gave some texture. The bread itself was squishy, not cake like at all, and the vanilla mixed with the chocolate was lovely. I plan on trying it with some peanut butter later this week. Maybe with some banana too... yum! I give this loaf 4 out of 5 loaves.

I'm still waiting for the special loaf to blow my socks off to get 5 loaves.This one was close, but still missing something to push it over the edge...

French Bread Memories- Loaf 3

So growing up, my mom had a bread machine. I have fond memories of her making mixes and bagging them into the fridge so we could have quick and simple homemade bread. I remember her experimenting with cornflake bread, and she always cut her butter and put it in the four corners. She says with her machine, it would spread better throughout the bread. My favorite bread she would make was a simple French bread. Somewhat dense, but also springy slathered in a thin layer of butter, warm from the machine... yum...

I called my mom last week for her recipe. She still has her recipes, and was more than happy to share for the cause. Meanwhile in the background my father's warning: You don't want that recipe, it's too good, we ate too much of it and it was bad for us. I agree, eating several loafs of it a week like we did when I was a kid is not good for your health. Which is why I decided to share this recipe with 10 other women, not a bad idea eh?

Below is the recipe I scratched while on the phone to my mother... looks good, no?

 Just in case you didn't get all that.. ha!

1 cup plus 3 tables spoons water
1 tablespoon of butter
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 1/2 teaspoons if bread machine yeast)

So as per all machines, first add your wet ingredients. You might notice in the scribbles about the water it says hot. I was told it needed to be warm, so I thought why don't I pop it in the microwave? I just wrote down hot for my sake....

 

 

Then I checked the temperature and realized I may have gotten overzealous. What else do you do with a meat thermometer in a mostly vegetarian household? At least my ground beef would be done, ha!

 

So after a quick realization, I just let the tap warm up. Silly me. In to the pot went the wet ingredients, and then the dry. If you're keeping up, you might notice the yeast is a little different, I opted for the fleismann's to see how it'd compare and if I could avoid the big bread loaf dents. make yourself a yeast volcano in the dry ingrdients. I prefer the light crust, and I used the regular basic setting on the machine.

The loaf turned out beautifully, without the big dents in the top. May I present, SUPER LOAF! Kinda looks like a cape..

The ladies loved the bread, I made three loaves of it and it made awful good turkey sandwich. Keeping it in plastic will help keep it fresh longer, but the cut edge of the bread will start to go stale within a day or two. I  give this loaf 4 loaves out of 5 for it's versatility, springiness, and overall yummy taste. It would be a 5 if it didn't go stale so easily. Overall a beautiful basic loaf.

Happy New Year! - Rosemary Loaf

We have some friends coming over to celebrate the new year, and I happen to have some very yummy Trader Joe's Spinach dip on hand. What could be better with that than fresh bread?

I decided for my first loaf to go with something that's been tested a little bit more than the loaf of white bread from the Oster Bread Manual. I also felt like making something that seemed a little fancier than white bread. That's when I stumbled upon Jo's Rosemary Bread by Jo Lager. 657 people had rated the recipe, and it had 5 out of 5 stars, it couldn't be bad right? We'll see if it gets 5 loaves.

Jo' Rosemary Bread on All Recipes

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
2 1/2 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast

I was elated to use some fresh rosemary. We have a little plant growing in our garden. Being January, it's one of maybe two plants that is still surviving in the garden.

From the reviews on the recipe, some said it was too salty, so I did reduce that a little bit. I also cut the water half an dhalf with milk, as my last recipe without any fat it in came out miserably.

First I combined all the wet ingredients. Oil always looks so strange floating on milk doesn't it?

Ok, after that it's time for the dry ingredients. Make sure you level off the flour with a knife, and spoon it into the measuring cup with a spoon. Now clean up the flour you dropped on the floor and counter, leveling the flour.

Add your herbs on top of the flour. Don't forget the fresh Rosemary. Maybe you skipped outside to cut some fresh rosemary too. Maybe you almost got hit by the neighbor backing out of the driveway on your quest for Rosemary. Don't do that part.

Add all your spices. Dig a little hole in the top of the flour for the yeast to sit in. It looks like a volcano, doesn't it? A yeast volcano... Then go back and grab the pepper mill because you added all the spices so far, except pepper. At least you remembered this time unlike the milk fiasco.

Set the machine to the regular bread setting, and the light crust because you're particular, and press start. Stare through the hole, then clean up the rest of the mess you just made, and keep your fingers crossed that this one works for company.

Ta-dah! Not too shabby! This bread has a lovely moist springy center, a good crisp outside, lovely aromas of rosemary and you can really taste the olive oil flavor. This loaf didn't last long. The last few pieces the Boy ate New Years day for breakfast while murmuring "I love your new hobby."

 

The spinach dip which had been skillfully tucked away in the freezer? Missing... Apparently we have a spinach dip thief in our midst. Maybe one of our cats was low on iron, or we ate it and forgot to replenish. After tasting the bread however, I was a little relieved it was missing. The center is light and moist, but probably not durable enough for spinach dip. Serve with good ol' fashioned butter flavor of your choice, or with some slices of warm turkey and spinach for a yum sandwich.

I made a second loaf of this before some friends came over. We were having pizza and video games night, and it was just as tasty the second time around. I even snuck a handful of ground flax seed into it at the last minute. Shhh, don't tell anyone I snuck in an extra handful of healthy. I couldn't even taste it myself, and I was the only one of the four who knew it was there at the time.

I give this loaf a hearty 4 loaves out of 5, loosing one loaf for the fact that it couldn't have possibly held a heaping spoonful of spinach dip as I had planned, and would have made a huge mess if we had tried. It was a nice light Italian flavored loaf. I'm also really glad I cut the salt in my version.It also made a nice piece of toast the next day that was nice and savory.

Happy New Year! Another loaf for the coming week will be posted soon. I have ten hungry women to feed on Friday, I'm thinking sandwiches may be in order and a new type of bread!