Raisin bread, white bread, and lasagna!
After such a full Saturday you'd think I'd want to take Sunday off right? Oh no my friends. I put the goal out there for all of you to read... I wasn't going to disappoint.
I certainly learned why bakers start really early in the morning. I started early, or so I thought. I woke up at 8 AM. I started work about 9 AM. I didn't finish the bread until almost 2. But it was oh so worth it. And really it wasn't much work, it's just a lot of waiting. it took about 1/2 hour to make each loaf but almost 3 hours for each to rise and be ready for the oven then 40 minutes to bake. So for the most part I was sitting waiting (well not really I was busy with the lasagna but I'll get to that later).
I have pictures, sadly not of the process of making the bread. That would have taken a little forethought and maybe an extra set of hands, which I gained later in the day for pictures of the lasagna. I think 9 AM was a little too early to ask my husband to get up just to take some stinkin' pictures of me making bread. :)
I chose to make what's called Milk Bread. I thought it sounded un-appetizing until I realized I could also make Cinnamon Raisin Loaf with the same dough. With the recipe chosen I was off!
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons warm water (105 -115 degrees)
1 C milk (the fat content does not matter, I used 1%) - warmed to 105 to 115 degrees
5 tablespoons melted butter or margarine (I used butter)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 to 2 C all purpose flour
melted butter (some)
Step one: yeast plus water. It sounds really easy but this is where you will make or break your bread. If you heat the water too high (above 115 degrees) you will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise. If you don't heat it enough you will not wake your yeast up and it will not rise.
I started with a pot of water on the stove and heated it slowly while getting all the other ingredients out.
add 3 tablespoons warm water to the mixing bowl of your electric mixer plus the yeast. Let this rest for 5 minutes. It should dissolve and get bubbly. You may even hear the air bubbles popping.
Step two: Add the warm milk, butter sugar egg and salt. Mix for about a minute.
Step three: Flour. Add the bread flour and mix until combined. This will be very wet. Once this is combined add the all purpose flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is no longer sticky. To this novice, it still seemed sticky even when I had added 2 cups of flour but I decided to just go with it and see what happened. It worked out so I guess I need to change my definition of what is "sticky".
Step four: Knead! This is the fun part! If you want to knead by hand pull the bowl and kneed by pushing the roll of dough away from yourself and folding in half, then turn 45 degrees and push away again. If you don't want to do it by hand you can knead with a dough hook in your electric mixer, that's what I did. Knead for 10 minutes.
Step five: Leave it alone! Ok that's not true, you need to put the dough in a oiled bowl and turn once to coat. I put the oil in the bowl by first coating part of a paper towel and wiping down the inside of the bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place (75 to 80 degrees) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I put the bowl in my oven with a bowl of steaming hot water to warm up the oven a few degrees.
Step six: Punch down the risen dough and knead for a minute.
Step seven: Refrigerate for 1/2 hour. I'm really not sure why, but I did what it told me to. The yeast was still hard at work and the dough rose a little more in the refrigerator.
Step eight: Rise again. Put the dough in a greased 8.5 X 4.5 inch loaf pan. You should try to shape it into a loaf type shape before putting it in the pan. If it starts in a ball either pull and fold it until it's in the right shape or roll it out with a rolling pin so it is 8.5 X 18 inches (or so), this is when you would add 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbs sugar and 1/2 C raisins to make cinnamon raisin loaf. when you've added the filling roll the loaf into an 8.5 inch roll and pinch the ends and place in a greased loaf pan. Cover the loaf with plastic wrap again and allow to rise for 1 hour.
Step nine: Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Before you place the loaf in the oven brush with melted butter, or if you're making raisin loaf sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top.
You'll know your loaf is done when you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. I found this really hard to do when the loaf and the pan were still really hot but I somehow found a way. I put the loaf pan on the edge of my range top and held the other end while leaving the center open for tapping with my oven mitt covered hand.
I'm not going to lie I was shocked this turned out right. Having never made bread before I was really expecting something flat and very sad looking. And now that I've read the recipe I realized I made a mistake. I used all bread flour. My bread is very chewy, which I think is really good but I can see it might be too much for some people. You may not be able to see it in the pictures but the process of kneading and rising and refrigeration created very small air pockets, as opposed to some bread which has very large air pockets.
Lasagna!
I've made this lasagna and I figure it's about time I share it with the world, especially since I think I perfected it.
Layers:
1 bunch swiss chard (I used red swiss chard, it has a red stem instead of green)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/3 C chopped onion
4 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
pinch of salt
1 lb mushrooms sliced
1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sauce:
2 1/2 C whole milk
1 bay leaf
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 C flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
pinch cloves
Lasagna
9 lasagna noodles
olive oil
15 oz ricotta cheese
6 oz fontina cheese coarsley chopped/grated (I chopped)
8 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
I started by making the layers, then the sauce then cooking the noodles. The recipe said to make the sauce first but that seemed odd because it would just be sitting around while you made the rest and I'm sure I'd do one of two things; either I'd knock it over and spill it everywhere and need to make it again, or it would overheat and curdle and that's just gross.
To start: Set a pot of water boiling with a pinch of salt. Remove the center veins of the swiss chard leaves, clean and coarsely chop. Boil the leaves for 1 minute. Remove from the water and drain of as much water as you can, set aside.
Set another pot of water to boil, this is for the lasagna noodles.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a saute pan and heat. Add the onion, half the garlic and the red pepper to the pan. Allow this to cook until the onions begin to soften and turn transparent. Now the chard should be a little cooler, press as much of the water out of the leaves as possible. Once they are as dry as you can make them add the swiss chard to the onions and garlic and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the pan.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the same pan with the mushrooms and the rest of the garlic. Saute until the mushrooms start to turn brown and become fragrant. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
In a heavy sauce pan heat the milk and bay leaf to a simmer. In another pan melt the butter. Add the flour to the butter pan and whisk continuously for 2 minutes. Slowly mix the milk and bay into the butter/flour roux. Add salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Continue to summer until the sauce has thickened to the point that it coats the back of a spoon. This should take about 3 minutes.
Once the water boils for the lasagna noodles add all nine to the pot. Mix every few minutes. These should take about 9 to 10 minutes. These will be a little more firm that you would normally cook pasta, don't forget they will be cooking more in the oven.
Lay out the cooked lasagna noodles on a baking sheet or wax paper.
Prepare a 9X13 inch baking pan (I love my Pyrex) by oiling the insides.
To build the lasagna add a few tablespoons of the sauce to the bottom of the pan, lay out 3 lasagna noodles side by side. Add 1/2 the chard mix and 1/2 the mushroom mix in as flat a layer as you can. Add 1/2 the ricotta, fontina, and parmesan. Pour 3/4 C sauce over the whole lasagna. Repeat for the 2nd layer. Lay the remaining 3 lasagna noodles on top, pour the rest of the sauce over top. I also added a thin layer of parmesan just for a little extra cheese.
Bake covered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, remove the cover and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.
The swiss chard is a little bit bitter which mixes really well with the sweet of the ricotta, the buttery flavor of the fontina, and the salty parmesan. It is a nicely balanced flavor.
I made this Sunday and I initially intended not to cook it on Sunday, just assemble the parts, but I was concerned it would become soggy and soft overnight. I decided to bake it on Sunday and reheat on Monday. Having done it I think it was the right choice, the lasagna was solid without being soggy or falling apart.
It was a really busy weekend but it was absolutely worth it and I plan on doing it again! Making at least 1 or 2 dinners ahead has allowed me to have more relaxing evenings after work and the bread makes great breakfast!
That's all I have for now my friends. Comments and questions are always appreciated!
