Flax seed loaf: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

                             flax seed loaf baked as rolls, with chia and sesame. 

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Baking from 'The Bread Bible', a 'Flax seed loaf' but I baked rolls with the dough and swapped out some of the flax seed for chia and sesame.  Fantastic recipe for a healthy bread that isn't heavy thanks to the mix of flours Rose lays out for use. Easy too! 

                      Flax seed is known as 'Linseed' in Australia. 

Flax stems are used to produce linen fabric. In ancient times Egyptians wore the shenti (a kilt like garment) made from flax stems woven into linen and flax flowers are often seen in ancient Egyptian murals. 

Today we are using the seeds from the flax plant, 58 grams were called for... I used 25 grams of flax seed (linseed), 10 grams each of white and black chia seeds with the rest of the weight being made up of black and white sesame seeds. 

White, wholewheat (wholemeal), pumpernickel (rye meal) flours are whisked together in a bowl along with instant yeast and the seed (mix).  

A well is made in the centre of the whisked flour and *honey added, followed by warm water and mixed until a rough dough is formed. 

After a short rest salt is added and mixing continued with the dough hook in the KitchenAid (hand method is also in book) for 7 minutes until you have a moist smooth dough. 

Off for rise now. 

After rising dough is shaped into a loaf or as I did shaped into rolls, top with seeds if desired. 

Ice cubes and preheated baking stone or tray are used produce Rose's home oven bread baking magic, and shortly you have a flax seed loaf or rolls that are substantial with a nutty wholesomeness, but still a light springiness to the texture.

Fresh baked rolls make a fabulous centre piece for your Easter table, baking different shapes from the same dough gives you visual impact... and you have delicious fresh bread to eat!! 

Notes:

*I didn't crush the linseed, I prefer them whole letting "chewing" do some crushing. 

*Substitute the honey for golden syrup for a vegan option to serve this Easter. 

I served mine with hard boiled egg slices, lettuce, fresh pickled carrot spirals and whole egg dill mayo. This is an easy bread for all the family and a great everyday healthful addition to your diet for sandwiches to toast to burger buns.   

Happy Baking :) 

Today has been one of the 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers' bakes where a group of fabulous bakers get together and bake from the pages of 'The Bread Bible'.

The Bread Bibleby Rose Levy Beranbaum is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores.

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Blueberry muffins: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

going, going, gone.  blueberry muffins. 

Going, going, gone!!   Well, I've just eaten my first ever blueberry muffin which coincides with my first blog post for the brand new bread baking group... 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers'.

Same format as previously; once a month baking from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible'. However, this time there is a few new bakers and we are starting earlier in the book.  I'm so happy to be involved, and looking forward to sharing my experiences. 

Oh and the rest of 'The Lone Baker' blog will continue as per usual with chocolate, fondant and the like. 

"It's a quick bread" 

In Australia I don't believe we generally think of muffins as quick breads or something to have for breakfast... it's more "like cakes, but not as good"... or at least that's how I think of them. I could count the muffins I've eaten in my life on one hand, until today that is when I've started the "other hand" with these ....

Blueberry Muffins

It began with butter, sugar and lemon zest being beaten together until light and fuffy. Egg and vanilla were added. 

Then flour was whisked together with baking soda (bi-carb to Australians) and salt. 

Oooo I know people that don't do the whisk or sift step (you know who you are!). Whisking makes for an even bake if the raising agent is evenly incorporated. 

The flour mixture plus some sour cream were then folded alternatively into the whipped butter mixture.

The resulting batter is thick.

Blueberries Ok they were supposed to be tiny in season Maine blueberries, instead in Australia as blueberries are out of season I've used large frozen blueberries. 

Once I folded through my "land of the giants" blueberries in their frozen state as to not stain the batter too much. I then used to an ice cream scoop to portion the batter into muffin cases. 

Nutmeg laced sugar was scattered over the top of the muffins. 

Rose called for fresh nutmeg, I used my microplane to grate a little nutmeg.

Nutmeg fruit photo courtesy of wikipedia.

Nutmeg fruit, contains this seed... the red you can see is "mace", under the mace is a seed similar to a stone fruit... that's the part that is dried and sold as nutmeg. 

Here just starting to fill the empty cake pan holes with water as Rose suggests. 

Then they were baked, five minutes longer for mine because they contained frozen berries.

Eating time, bite through the buttery sugar crust into the open textured but soft and moist interior, where you pick up hint of lemon and a burst of warm blueberry (mine were giant bursts of blueberry!!). The nutmeg flavour is more of a whisper than a shout but adds a bit of the "oh what is that flavour?"

Loved the blueberry muffins warm, not so much cold, so I'd eat them quick or reheat later on. Rose has reheat instructions in the book.

The Bread Bible  by Rose Levy Beranbaum is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores.

Happy Baking :)  

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Sacaduros 'The Bread Bible' Alpha Bakers

Sacaduros:  crisp crusted, soft interior dinner roll with a burst of salty butter. 

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“But he who dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.” -Anne Brontë

Dang, I had a "dinner roll shaping problem" this week. These little dinner rolls are Rose Levy Beranbaum's favourites from restaurant 'Daniel' New York. Thanks to the 'Bread Bible' I got to make them, firstly lets see what they are supposed to look like ....

Serious eats has a fabulous gallery of bread baskets in New York, including the bread basket from restaurant 'Daniel'. You can see the sacaduros front left, those round rolls were what I was aiming for. Mine didn't have the "petal like" pulled up sides you see pictured here. Even though I experienced "folding fail" the resulting dinner rolls are so incredibly delicious I can live with my misshapen little fellas.  

Here we go...

Three quarters of a dough batch from Rose's 'Basic Hearth Bread' was called for so I started by whisking together bread flour, wholemeal flour, instant yeast, honey and warm water for the sponge (dough starter). 

Bread flour combined with instant yeast was sifted over the sponge and left to ferment. 

Sponge bubbling through the flour topping. 

I used my Kitchen Aid to beat the sponge, flour and added salt into a dough then off to rise once more.

Cubed butter and salt are needed for the filling.

Fleur de Sel French salt: distinctly moist and often used as a finishing salt. 

I also made a flavoured butter by adding fresh coriander, garlic, chilli and grated ginger to softened butter. The butter wasn't whipped as in the standard compound butter technique but rather the flavourings were beaten in with a wooden spoon as to not incorporate excess air. Form the butter into a square and refrigerate before cutting into cubes. 

Time for pinching off 33 gram balls of dough (Rose recommended one at a time, I did four at a time... maybe my downfall part) and gently flattened balls into discs.  A half inch cube of butter and a pinch of fleur de sel on top of the butter are placed in the centre of each flattened ball.

And then I started talking about napkins:  I'm presuming the folds in the rolls were inspired by Escoffier's famous "rose" fold napkin technique, including "pulling" up pieces to form petals. 

Shaping the rolls; pull two sides of dough out and fold bringing them to the centre to cover the butter without squashing it down, then pull out the other two sides and bring to centre. Rotating the dough so a pointed end is facing you, repeat the folds.  Then in the written instructions there is "for the last two pulls, take only pinches of dough". The diagrams don't have this bit in my Kindle version. I was confused and also my dough did not want to stretch for those final two pulls. I tried to force it (yep, ok shouldn't do that) and ended up with my misshapen rolls that were placed upside down in a tray of flour. 

About a third of the rolls burst in the oven and the butter leaked, these were my "I bet I could stretch that dough with brute force" ones.     

At the end I had sacaduros with super thin hard and crunchy crusts that gave way to light and fluffy interiors with bursts of salty butter. Shaping aside these are the best bread rolls I have baked, so pleased with crust and interior texture. The long oven pre-heat and other tips within the book are yielding excellent results. 

Would I bake again? Yes, loved them. You could do so many different butters/flavours by changing herbs and seasonings. From a straight garlic butter to a lime zest black pepper butter, lemon and dill, black olive, or vanilla salt and butter to go with your scallops and white fish. 

Would I change anything? Yes, I wouldn't do the flour on top step, messy stuck in lipstick eating. Ha, ha if I folded them correctly next time that would be nice.  

How it works... joining the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible'. I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book sellers. 

Happy Baking :) 

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