Nothing special

Big chic has been buying lunch more lately. Honestly, the dining hall has had some pretty healthy meals. Last week, I stopped in to eat lunch with her and they had roast beef and broccoli. Not even pressed, prepacked roast beef. Like REAL roast beef slices. I was impressed. So, anyway, she IS taking lunch tomorrow and told me what she wanted. Nothing special, but here it is...

PB&J on homemade white whole wheat bread, Frozen blackberries, Granola bar, Frozen green beans

I made the white whole wheat bread from King Arthur's website in my awesome pullman pan. It came out a little disappointing, but it was still good. I have to admit, though, that I didn't have any potato flakes for the recipe, and I'm a little disturbed by the thought of potato flakes anyway. So I'll live with my bread the way it is!

A Healthier Cinnamon Babka

Happy Thanksgiving! I decided to take a break from my Thanksgiving cooking to post my cinnamon babka recipe from last week. When the chic asked me to make cinnamon bread, I immediately went to an awesome cinnamon babka recipe that I've used for years. It's in The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook by Tom Lacalamita. I've had this cookbook for almost 12 years and I think it is the best bread machine cookbook ever printed! I'm not big on baking bread in the machine...I like to use it for dough. And it has tons of awesome recipes for dough cycle, hand shaped breads.

Anyway, I decided to try to make it a bit healthier by adding ground flax and using half whole wheat flour. Make no mistake, I did not cut the sugar or butter. The butter, eggs, sugar, etc...are what make babka so so good. So it's still not the healthiest bread option. Consider it a somewhat improved version. I also wanted to use the Pullman pan. It turned out really well and honestly, I don't think my additions made a difference in the texture or taste. The hubs didn't even know that I did anything different until I told him. I use my bread machine to make the dough, cause it's easy and super easy to clean up. Here's the recipe:

Healthier Cinnamon Babka

(Enough dough for one Pullman pan and one regular loaf pan)

3 eggs

1 3/4 cup milk

3 T butter, softened

1 t vanilla

3 T sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 c ground flax

2 c stone ground whole wheat flour

3 c all purpose flour

3/4 t salt

1 T vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 T yeast



Filling:

4 T butter

1/2 c white sugar

2 T cinnamon



Topping:

2 T butter

4 T sugar

large pinch cinnamon

4 T flour

Add all ingredients to bread machine in the order suggested by manufacturer. Set to dough cycle.

While dough is processing, mix filling and topping in separate bowls and set aside. Generously butter a Pullman pan.

When dough cycle is done, punch down and let rest for five minutes. Turn onto floured surface and cut off about 1/3 of the dough an set this 1/3 aside for another use (it's a perfect amount for a regular loaf pan).

Roll remaining dough out to 1/4" thick rectangle. Sprinkle filling on the rectangle and roll up tightly. Stretch dough to twice the length of the pan and place in pan in an "S" shape tucking ends under loaf. Cover and let rise till double.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Carefully make an indention down the middle of the loaf and brush with a beaten egg. Sprinkle with topping mixture. DO not use the lid for this loaf! Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

There are other variations of Babka. Cinnamon, cheese and chocolate are the most common varieties. Anyone remember the chocolate babka from Seinfeld?

Butternut Squash Soup

Well, this is the last lunch for a week. We have a Thanksgiving Feast on Friday and then the chic is out of school for Thanksgiving break! I've got a lot of cooking to do between now and then so I'll probably post some non-lunch related stuff over the next week. BUT, we have one more, so here goes...Butternut squash soup.

Butternut Squash soup - Croutons,creme fraiche and pumpkin seeds to add the the soup - Fruit leather - Cheese curds - Homemade whole wheat flax cinnamon babka

The babka was a variation on my favorite cinnamon babka recipe. I really wanted to try making it in the Pullman pan AND I was trying to make it healthier but still yummy. It was. I literally had to wrap it in Press N Seal and walk away from the kitchen so I would stop eating it. The chic asked me to make her some cinnamon bread this morning so she should be thrilled to see this in her lunch! I will post the recipe later this weekend!

Eastern European Black Bread

(I'm hijacking my own blog for all my baker friends today. Lunch posts will resume next week after the chic's Fall break.)

I finally got up the nerve to try to make Eastern European Black Bread in my new-ish (after 6 loaves, it's not so new anymore) Pullman pan. What kinda intimidated me about it were all the soakers, starters, and sours. Take a look at the recipe and you'll see what I mean Easter European Black Bread Recipe I've used starters for bread a buncha times, but the soakers and sours were new territory for me. Plus I had to strategically time these things. The starter was a week ahead of baking, the soaker 24 hours ahead, and the sour 15 hours ahead. But, I decided to just go for it and see what happened.

(clockwise from top) sourdough starter, rye soaker, rye sour

I wish I would have taken a picture of the sour after it's resting time. It starts out looking like paste but ends up all puffed up and full of air bubbles. It was pretty cool. I gotta tell you though, that the soaker and the sour were stinky! I went back and re-read the directions to make sure that I wasn't supposed to put them in the fridge and still didn't believe it so I looked up a few more rye recipes. Nope - counter. Just a warning to anyone else that might decide to make the bread and then worry all night that you are poisoning your family. You're not! So after making sure that no one would die from my bread baking adventure, everything else went smoothly.

Ready for the oven

Once cooled, you're supposed to wait 24 hours before slicing it. After waiting for a week to make the bread and spending two days on prep, I wasn't waiting a minute more. I sliced into that sucker and tried a slice. And so what...they were right...I shoulda waited cause it really tore up the piece that I sliced, but it was still good. The Hubs, who normally dislikes all black, brown, rye breads actually liked it. I think it was the textural difference. The black bread I've bought in stores, and even at the bakery, had a drier, more fine crumb to it. But this was the opposite, soft and moist. I reminded me of the black bread I ate while in London when I first fell in love with it- almost like a steamed bread. Maybe that's what the lid helps with...steaming it a bit.

I let it cool completely and sliced off my impatient end and the rest of the bread sliced beautifully. So despite all the smelly ingredients and the week long prep work, it was a hit and I would definitely make it again!

Honey Oat Flax Bread Recipe, by request - many many requests...

I think this is my fourth batch of this bread. It is so good! After telling about it in several posts, I've been asked for the recipe a buncha times. So, here is the recipe for Aimee's Honey Oat Flax Bread...kinda. I tweaked a few things, as I always seem to do. Enjoy!

Honey Oat Flax Bread

Scant Tbsp Yeast
3 Tbsp Honey (Molasses is good also!)

2 1/4 cups Warm Water

9 Tbsp Powdered Buttermilk (I have also used regular powdered milk)

Place all in the bowl of a heavy stand mixer and let sit 5 minutes or so until yeast is bubbly. Then add:

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 cups Bread Flour

1 1/3 cups Old Fashioned Oats

1/4 cup Flaxseeds

2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseeds

scant Tbsp Wheat Gluten

1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

Mix with dough hook in stand mixer on low just till it comes together, then turn up the power and knead until it forms a ball that pulls from the sides of the bowl. Continue to knead a few more minutes.

Cover bowl and let stand for an hour or until doubled. Punch down, remove from bowl and twist dough (like your wringing a towel - I always thinks this makes a nice texture inside??) Place dough in a buttered 13" Pullman pan or two regular sized loaf pans. Let rise until almost doubled again. Slide lid on pan, if using a Pullman. Bake 375 deg for 40 minutes. Turn out on rack and resist eating the whole loaf before it cools!

We really enjoy this with peach jam and goat cheese!

Mmmmmmmmmm!

Bread to Bake (and a Snack to Make)...

Tomorrow is Student Council Pizza Day and, as I've said before, I cannot compete with a pizza day. So, no lunch for tomorrow. I did decide to make her a snack since I'm sure there will be no fruits or vegetables on her pizza! This is the snack bento for her pizza Friday:

Edamame, Black olives, Apple bites and pistachios.

I gotta be honest, I didn't mind the lack of lunch-making today. My mind was on bread making instead of lunches. I was waiting on a man with a pan. I learned about Pullman pans last week. Pullman pans are the long lidded loaf pans that make perfectly square loaves of bread with a thinner, softer crust - perfect for sandwiches. In all my years of bread making, how could a Pullman pan have escaped my sight? So I went on a shopping frenzy looking for one and found that they are surprisingly hard to find (and really expensive!). I finally found one on King Arthur Flour's website AND it was on clearance for $19.99. It was meant to be! So, today I learned that the three greatest words are not "I love you" - they are "Out for Delivery" and I stalked the UPS man.

As soon as the thing was in my hand, I whipped up a batch of Whole Wheat Honey Oat Flax bread. This is the bread just before placing the lid on to bake.

And here it is fresh out of the oven:




I can't wait to bake more bread in it. I really like being able to make our own bread, but have never liked the shape of the loaves from a bread machine or a regular loaf pan. Plus I heard that I can make European Black Bread (my absolute favorite bread) in it because the lid keeps black breads from burning during their longer cooking times. I see LOTS of breads in my little foodie's future lunchboxes!