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!

Fanfare for the First Loaf

I had decided to start this blog after I bought the bread machine off of craigslist.  That being said, who buys a new (or new to them) fun kitchen gadget and doesn't try it out? Really, who?

So, though undocumented by photo, I thought I would share about the first loaf of bread. Excitedly I went home, and after purchasing some White Lilly Bread flour, I ran home to test it out. The Boy is particularly fond of White Lilly flours, as many of his family recipes involve it despite being Yankees from the cold depths of MI.

Walked in the door, pulled out the machine, the flour and realized.... I need a recipe.

Being resourceful, I thought what better place to get a recipe than the manual from the machine itself? Except as the machine is new to me, not new, I didn't have a manual. Oh the women had mentioned she had it somewhere, and she could even mail it to me if she found it while moving. A nice thought, but I politely declined. I know the ol' "the manual's in the mail." Once she had her cash, she didn't really care if I had the manual or not. I would forge my own path, how hard could it be?

I found the manual online. Great! Chapter 2: Let's Bake Bread. Sounds like the perfect place to start, right? Who needs chapter 1?

Then I was enlightened by the most important secret to bread making. Exact measurements. They said it 3 times in four lines, I guess they must me right. Apparently exact measurements means tediously scooping flour into the measuring cup, and then leveling it off. Did you know you can add up to a full tablespoon by scooping your flour with the measuring spoon? Whew, glad I read the manual. Who wants to be off by a tablespoon?


A quick scan revealed that there was indeed a second most important tip to bread making, this one even more important to us with bread machines. Put the ingredients in the machine in the right order.

First: Wet ingredients
Second: Dry ingredients
 Last: Yeast

Phew, glad I read the manual. Now it gives me a recipee for simple, but very good white bread.

Oster Bread Machine Simple White Bread Recipe

1 + 1/3 cups water
4 teaspoons softened
butter or margarine
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons dry milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

I load up the machine, set the crust setting to medium and wait with bated breath for 4 hours for the first loaf. The machine clunks and beeps at random times, what's that about? Just when I begin to forget it's there, it starts clunking again. I peep through the window hole on the top. Nope, still just dough. Thank goodness for window holes for the restless.

Four hours later it beeps a loud beep. Is this the "come pull the delicious masterpiece out of the machine" beep? I slide the loaf onto a cooling rack and was the lucky the mixing paddle just fell out. I begin wielding my bread knife. Pretty crusty for a medium setting. In fact, way to crumbly. Inside is very light, and chewy, but the edge could break teeth. "It's good as long as you eat the inside" The boy reassures me. So this is the medium setting? The dark setting must make the loaf one giant brick.

Crumb nuggets. Luckily our neighbors keep birds who enjoy bread. I'm sure they pecked away at the first loaf and had a swell time. Guess where all the failed loafs will be going after this?

Looking back, and re-reading the recipe, I now realize I completely disregarded the powdered milk instruction. I carefully measured and leveled my flour, yet forgot powdered milk? You heard it right.

So the first loaf was meh. I hope your first loaf turns out better. Maybe you'll read the recipe and you know, follow the whole thing?

I give this recipe 2 loaves out of 5. Maybe it would have gotten 3 loaves if I hadn't forgotten the milk.

Stay tuned, the first loaf of 2010 will be coming shortly. The new year is just 3 days away!