loaves & rolls

Pesto Fans

I’m a big fan of pesto. In recent years I haven’t made it as much as I’d like because I haven’t had access to a ready supply of basil. Of course I could buy it, and sometimes did, but I got spoiled for fresh-picked basil pesto when we lived in Vermont and I had a decent vegetable garden, something I’ve never managed to quite get going in all the years we’ve lived in California. It’s quite lame, actually.

I’m happy to report that this year, inspired by my brother-in-law’s incredible garden, I now have a small plot of my own, a raised bed in our tiny but eminently sunny front yard. It’s not what the real estate agents would tell you makes for optimal curb appeal in this suburban neighborhood, but the back yard is just too shady for most summer vegetables. Grass lawns are so 20th-century anyway.

I got a late start, so while other gardeners around here are already harvesting squash, peppers, and tomatoes, mine won’t be ready for another few weeks. But I have herbs! Last night I picked the first basil of the season, and buried my nose in it for about 20 minutes before I got down to the business of making the pesto.

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Sprouted Wheat Sourdough With Fruits and Nuts

This is how I used my sprouted wheat. The bread is easily adapted to any taste by including your favorite dried fruits and nuts. I chose blueberries, plums, walnuts, and orange zest. Try apricots, raisins, cherries, figs, almonds, pecans, or whatever else strikes you, or omit the fruit altogether for a more savory bread.

Date molasses is available in Middle Eastern grocery markets. If you don’t have it, substitute thawed fruit juice concentrate. Wheat gluten can be found in the baking section of many markets, or ordered online.

This submission for BreadBakingDay #11, bread with sprouts. This one-year anniversary edition is hosted this month by BBD’s founder, Zorra (1x umrühren bitte). I have loved seeing all the breads everyone comes up with each month and I’m sure this month will be no exception!

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Hamburger Rolls

Last weekend, we grilled the first hamburgers from our newly-joined meat CSA. They were most excellent accompanied by a little lettuce, tomato, and red onion on these rolls. I made everyone wait while I took a photo before we could eat. (This is just one of the ways I endlessly embarrass my daughter, who is convinced I lie awake at night plotting new ways to do this.)

The rolls are quite a bit more substantial than the squishy cottony ones that seem, unfortunately, to be standard cookout fare. With about 40% whole wheat flour, the crust is chewy-tender, the crumb soft but still hearty and flavorful. And they’re not just for burgers; they work for just about any sandwich. Sized a little smaller, they would also make fine dinner rolls.

The preferment in this recipe is prefermented dough (AKA “pâte fermentée” or “old dough”). This is essentially a simple white bread dough that has already undergone its first fermentation. You can make it from scratch, as described here, but if you have some extra dough left over from making French bread or pizza, go ahead and use that. Or, in a pinch, you can use store-bought dough (Trader Joes’ isn’t bad).

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Granola for BreadBakingDay

I made granola for BreadBakingDay. You may be thinking: Ahem, this is BBD, not BCD (BreakfastCerealDay). To which I would reply: True, but this granola is so much more than a breakfast cereal. Bear with me.

Ten days ago, I had never made granola. I hadn’t eaten granola in years. Granola was merely a faint shadow lurking at the periphery of my long-term memory. Then I read about Molly’s favorite granola on Orangette, and I thought, this looks good. In fact, this looks great! Not to mention ever-so-easy. And, modulo a substitution or two, I had all the ingredients on hand.

A couple of hours, a batch of homemade applesauce, and nearly three pounds of oats, nuts, and seeds later, I could confirm that Molly does not exaggerate: the stuff was amazing. My family thought so too. We ate it with milk. We ate it with the rest of the applesauce. We ate it with yogurt, with almond milk, and right from our hands. We ate it in the morning, yes, but in the afternoon and evening, too. We showed no restraint whatsoever. Within two days, it was gone.

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4S Bread

I’m rather fond of the letter S, having lived with it as my first initial for quite a while now. It’s probably the letter I write more than any other, especially considering I have to sign my name or initials about 100 times a day at work.

So while I wasn’t consciously setting out to make a bread whose main ingredients all share my initial, perhaps my ego was quietly asserting itself when, in an experimental frame of mind, I put a few ingredients together and came up with Semolina-Spelt-Sesame Sourdough. 4S bread.

For a bread that contains not a single nut, this bread tastes remarkably nutty. The nuttiness derives mainly from the hefty dose of sesame seeds, and also from the semolina and spelt flours. Smear it with your favorite fruit preserves and you’d swear it was a PB&J, except it doesn’t stick to the roof of your mouth. The bread is quite nice for sandwiches because the crumb is soft, thanks to the olive oil, and not too open, so you won’t get splotches of jelly all over yourself.
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Apple-Walnut Sourdough

Did you know March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day? When I was small, every school child in the United States was taught about John Chapman, the nurseryman who traveled the early 19th-century American frontier planting apple trees and distributing seeds to the settlers and Native Americans. We learned that “Johhny Appleseed” was a conservationist, humanitarian, herbal healer, and philanthropist.

What they didn’t tell us in grade school was that the apples that grew on those seed-grown trees were much too sour for snacking or baking a pie, too sour for anything except turning into hard cider. As Michael Pollan put it, Johnny Appleseed was popular and legendary with American frontier settlers because he was “the guy bringing the booze.”

So for Johnny Appleseed Day, I had it in mind to bake an apple sourdough that included hard cider. I did use hard cider the first time I made it, but I like this version with sweet cider a bit better. The dough is still plenty sour from the high proportion of sourdough starter. The sweetness of the chunky walnuts and cider-soaked dried apples is a welcome contrast.

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