Hot Cross Buns

It's Easter soon!    Yay!   I'm not a big fan of baskets of candy, or hard boiled eggs, but I love hot cross buns.  

Love them!

And they're easy to make, too, which is good because otherwise, forget it.   I'm sure you feel that way, too.  

Robin's Hot Cross Buns
www.rurification.com

• 6 ½ C flour
• 3 tsp cardamom or cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp sea or kosher salt
• 1-2 ¼ C mixed dried fruit, chopped:  cherries, citrus, currants, raisins, craisins, apricots, etc. 

Mix all of that together in a large bowl [big enough to mix all the dough in]  leaving a well in the center and put it in the oven to warm up.   Use the lowest oven setting.   

• ½ C butter
• 2 C milk
• 1 C sugar
• 5 tsp yeast

Melt butter.  Take off heat.   Add milk.   The milk should warm up to skin temp quickly in the pan.   In another bowl, mix the dry yeast and the sugar well.   Add the sugar and yeast to the milk/butter mix and stir well.   Let sit until yeast dissolves.  

• 2 large eggs lightly beaten.

When the flour mixture is good and warm and the yeast is dissolved in the milk,  pour the yeast mix and the eggs in the flour mix.  Roll to mix using a large spoon or your hands.   Roll until all the flour is incorporated into the dough.   If the dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour.   If it is too dry, add  warm [not hot] water 1 tsp at a time until it is right.     Handle the dough as little as possible for tender bread.  

Cover bowl with damp cloth.  Let rise until double.

Pull dough out on floured surface.   Divide into 24 balls.   Set balls on greased baking pan close together but not touching.   

Let rise 30-45 minutes until doubled and touching.   Pre-heat oven to 500° F.

Egg Glaze: 

• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 Tb milk

Cut surface of rolls in cross, brush with egg glaze. 

Traditionally the cross is put on before baking.  That's what I did.  OR  you can leave the topping off and put icing crosses on after they’re baked and cooled.  

Pre-baking Topping:

• ¼ C flour
• 1 T sugar
• 3-4 T water

Mix well in bowl.   Spoon or pipe onto cross.   Put in oven and turn the temp down to 400°.   Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Post-baking-and-cooling

Icing:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons milk

Corn Bread Pudding with Leftover Cornbread

We love our cornbread here and fix it quite often.  There is nothing better, hot out of the oven, with butter and honey.    Or jam.   

I like sweeter cornbread.   OK, it's basically cake.    Eric likes the regular stuff and especially loves it baked in a cast iron skillet with bacon grease in the bottom.    Heaven.

Occasionally there is a leftover day old piece or two that is just a bit too dry to really enjoy.   My dad used to crumble it up and put it in a glass,  adding a few chopped onions, then fill it up with buttermilk and eat it with a spoon.  He was raised on a cotton farm in Arkansas.  They were poor and nothing went to waste.  Plus, the man loved his southern cooking. 

We don't let ours go to waste either.   We had a couple of big pieces left over from the last batch, so I crumbled them up and made this luscious cornbread pudding.  

It's a savory version with lots of herbs, cheese and extra corn.  [We used what we froze last summer.]  All cooked up in a warm custard.  It was so fantastic we had it for breakfast the next day, too.   

It would be divine with a few strips of crisp bacon crumbled into it, too!

Corn Bread Pudding with Leftover Cornbread

www.rurification.com

4 eggs

2 cups milk
1 tsp thyme 

1/2 teaspoon crushed rosemary 

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt  

2 cups cheese 

2 cups corn kernels [canned [drained], frozen, whatever]
3 cups cornbread crumbs 

4 strips bacon, crisp and crumbled [optional]

Beat eggs well, add milk and herbs and salt.  Stir in cheese. Stir in corn and cornbread. Pour into 8 inch casserole dish. Bake 350 for 50-60 minutes or until it doesn't jiggle and a knife in the center

comes out clean.

Natural Yeast and Commercial Yeast Experiments

Eric made this beautiful bread with 2 cups of natural yeast and only half as much commercial yeast as a normal recipe called for.   [The recipe made 3 loaves - it's the baguette recipe from the book below. Bread snobs know from the pic it's nowhere near the traditional stuff, but it's delicious.]

So far we're loving bread this way.   I like the taste of natural yeast and we're getting a good rise with much less of the commercial stuff.

Eric's favorite bread book is The Bread Book, by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake is out of print and dirt cheap on Amazon.   He likes it for the instructions and for the range of recipes.   

Natural Yeast Used with Regular Commercial Yeast

I love our natural yeast.   We've been playing with it for a couple of years now and our local yeasts have populated it nicely.   I like the flavors our natural yeast has.

The problem is that it doesn't raise the bread much.  I like the taste, but I don't much like eating bricks. My natural yeast has always had a great bubble, but not a great rise.  I worried about the start, but according Melissa Richardson, it's fine and should make a great loaf. 

I've given starts of our natural yeast to people who are able to get bread that rises brilliantly, so clearly it's something about our kitchen here than is causing the trouble.   Unfortunately, no one has volunteered to bake bread for us in a good rising kitchen and we only have the one poor rising kitchen, so we need to find a fix.   And I know we are not the only folks who are having the same trouble with good yeast and a poor rise.

I did some reading and learned a bit more about yeasts and gluten and bread science.  It's all a bit confusing.   I thought I'd lay it all out here and let you guys chime in with what you know, too.

According to Caleb Warnock, who, along with Melissa Richardson, wrote The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast: Breads, Pancakes, Waffles, Cinnamon Rolls and Muffins,  natural yeasts consume the gluten.   This was true for us.   I'd mix up the dough really well until it was nice and stretchy and then let it sit for a few hours to rise and come back to a wet puddle-y mess - exactly as if the gluten had been destroyed.  I'd add more flour and give it another go and get....heavy bread. 

According to The Accidental Scientist's Science of Cooking,  you need the gluten to get a good rise.  The gluten forms as a reaction between water and two proteins found in flour:  glutenin and gliaden.  The gluten forms long chewy strands. The yeast consumes the sugars in the flour and releases carbon dioxide - those bubbles are yeast farts.  Bread rises when the gluten captures the yeast farts within the long stringy structures and holds them.

This is what I think is happening to our bread - the natural yeasts are breaking the gluten down and doing it well!  But there's not enough gluten left to hold the bubbles for a good rise.  It's healthy bread, but a poor rise.

So, Eric and I started thinking.  Natural yeast is a collection of local yeasts.   Commercial yeast is only one variety of yeast - a fast rising one and usually Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  The makers of Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast describe the process of growing this yeast on their site.  What if we used the two types of yeast together?   Why couldn't we get the health benefits of natural yeast and the good rise of commercial yeast?

Eric started by soaking the flours [we use mostly whole wheat] overnight in water with the natural yeast.   We got a good soft flour with a very sour taste.   We didn't like that.  So, next Eric decided to soak only the flours in water overnight with no yeast.   Then the next day he added both the natural yeast start and only 80% of the commercial yeast to the bread.  If the recipe calls for 2 1/2 tsp of yeast, we only add 2 tsp.  The mixture bubbles madly.  That's what you see in the photo above.  We consistently get a great tasting bread [with a lot of natural yeasts and all the benefits that come with them] that rises very nicely.  

We are still experimenting with this approach.   We're going to try lowering the quantity of commercial yeast and see how low we can go and still get a good rising bread.  We'll keep you posted.

Bagels

K2 decided to try making some bagels for the fun of it.

She used this recipe here.  It's a two day process, but really easy - so if you want to try it plan on an overnight proofing.

She used regular yeast since this was the first time, but now that the weather's hot and the natural yeast start is happy, and she knows how the dough is supposed to feel, we thought we'd try a batch with natural yeast next.  I'll keep you posted.

This batch was especially good with cream cheese and my strawberry vanilla jam.   Recipe for the jam coming soon!

Yule Bread

Annual repost --


This bread is a traditional Danish Christmas braided bread. It’s easier than it sounds and delicious with hot chocolate on Christmas morning…and afternoon…and evening…and after the kids go to bed.


K2 spends the entire time I make it trying to steal bits of dough and then begging me to let her eat a loaf [in its entirety, by herself] as soon as it comes out of the oven.

As. Soon. As.

This year, I put my refusals to music.   Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

No! You can't. eat. some!   I told you no, told you no. No you really can't. [Even if you whine.] You cannot. have. any bread, any bread, No you really can't.  [Tears won't work on me.]
...

Et cetera.

OK.   It was probably more entertaining in person.

Anyway.

I got this recipe years ago from a good friend who's mom is from Denmark, and her Yule Bread is an art.  They kindly gave me the recipe.   Thank you!  My family will be eternally grateful.

Eternally.

Yule Bread
www.rurification.com

• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 4 cups milk
• 1 1/3 cups sugar 
• 3 Tbsp yeast
• 2 1/2 tsp cardamom [the fresher, the better]
• 2 tsp salt
• 10-12 Cups flour

Optional Glaze:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water

Directions:
Melt butter. Add milk. Warm to body temperature.   The butter will be good and hot by the time it has melted and when you add the milk to it, the butter will raise the temp of the milk to just exactly what you need. 

While the butter is melting, in a very large bowl mix sugar, salt and cardamom.

Soften yeast with a large spoon full of the sugar mixture and some of the warm milk.

Add yeast and milk/butter to the rest of the sugar mix in the very large bowl. Stir well.

Add flour a cup at a time.  Start with a whisk so that the flour gets incorporated quickly.   As the dough gets thicker, use a spoon instead and incorporate the flour with a rolling motion.  When it's too hard to roll with a spoon, use your hands to roll it.  Be gentle with the dough.  Handle it as little as possible so that it will stay tender.


Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise 1 hour.  

Divide dough into 8 balls.   Start by dividing it in half, then each of those two in half, then each of those four in half.   You'll get lovely balls of about the same size.  

Divide each of those into 3 smaller balls. Let rest. (Dividing takes some time, so by the time you’re done dividing everything, the first set has rested long enough.)  Cover as many as you can with the damp cloth you used to cover the dough during the first rise. 

Make a 15″ rope from each of the 3 small balls. Braid and tuck the ends under.   Put them on a greased cookie sheet.   It'll take 2 sheets.   

Let rise 30 minutes.   Start the timer when you've filled your first sheet.

Optional glaze: Beat egg with 1 tsp water and brush on loaves.   Confession:   I never put the glaze on.   I'm way too lazy.

Bake until golden blonde on greased sheet at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

If you didn't use the glaze, then brush melted butter all over the tops of the loaves as soon as they come out of the over. [Translation:  Take the paper off one end of a stick of butter and rub it on the hot bread.   The butter melts immediately and you don't have to wash a brush.]

Cool loaves on parchment paper.  

Notes:

• You do not have to do 8 loaves.  This is America.  There are no Yule Bread Police.  You can do 4 or 6 or 12.   For smaller loaves to gift, divide the dough into 12 balls.   These loaves are a great little size that fits perfectly into a gift bag for giving away.
• If your cardamom is old, then it's OK to add more - add an extra 1/2 tsp to start with.   The cardamom is the whole reason to make this bread, so don't be stingy with it. 
• One last thing - this dough is sweet and delicious and if you eat too much it will give you painful gas because the yeast will love your inner body temp.  Trust me.  Don't. Eat. The Dough.   Not even a bit, because then you won't be able to stop.  

Rolls made with Natural Yeast

I discovered accidentally that our natural yeast much prefers hot water/liquid to get a very high rise.   I was happy to see this because our bread has been delicious but a bit dense.    I wanted to be able to control the rise a bit better.  

So when I made these rolls for Thanksgiving, I scalded the milk and melted the butter in the microwave until they were hot.   HOT!    And I poured it right in on top of the yeast with the flour and sugar and salt and then I mixed it all.

And the yeast did not die.  

And it rose and rose and rose.

And my rolls were light.  

And fluffy.   And delicious!   Yes!!

So.   Remember that:    Your natural yeast start might really like hot liquid.   Try it and find out.  Feed it with hot water and see if it rises better.

Rolls with Natural Yeast
www.rurification.com

• 1 1/2 cups natural yeast start [whatever's left when you feed your start]
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 cups white flour

Scald the milk and melt the butter.   It's OK if they're HOT! [Hot as in too hot to put your finger in, but not boiling].    Put the yeast, sugar, salt, butter, milk and flour in your mixer with a dough hook and mix away.    You might need to scrape down the sides.    This was enough flour for the dough to hold together and pull away clean from the sides of the mixer bowl.    The dough holds together well, but is still soft.

Mix until the dough begins to 'windowpane'.  [Stretch a bit of dough between your fingers to make a square.   It should get thin before it breaks.  That means the gluten is developed.]

Put in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until double.  [I let mine rise in the oven with the light on.]  It took mine almost three hours to double.  [That's the proofing stage.]  After the proofing, pinch off pieces of dough the size you need for rolls, roll them into balls and put them in baking pans so that they just barely touch.  Cover and let them rise again until double.   It took almost three hours.   When they've risen, uncover them and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until browned. 

Makes 2 baking pans [8x12] full of rolls.   Would probably make three loaves of bread.

Cardamom Buns with Natural Yeast

I love my natural yeast.    I've been baking bread with it, trying to get light and fluffy bread instead of heavy and brick-like bread.   

Brick-like bread is good for a lot of things, but not eating.   For example, you can use brick-like bread for a door stop.   Or a weapon.   Or a big paperweight.   Or a mold culture.  Or a window prop.   Or to break into your car if you forget your keys.   Or instead of a clay pigeon. 

I'd just rather have light and fluffy bread.

You know?

I've been playing a lot with the natural yeast and noticed that a lot of recipes call for only 1/2 cup of starter.  That's not enough here.  I kept getting brick bread.  When I feed my start, I take out about 1 1/2 cups of the old starter to make room for the new feed.  One day,  I decided to use all 1 1/2 cups of leftover start in the dough.  What a difference!  I made a batch of light and fluffy cardamom buns that was so good that K2 begged me to make more.   Every. Day. 

So I did. 

Cardamom Buns with Natural Yeast
from www.rurification.com

• 1 1/2 cups natural yeast start  [or whatever you take out when you feed your start]
• 2 cups white flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 more cup white flour

Mix the natural yeast start, 2 cups of white flour, milk, sugar, cardamom, eggs,  and oil well.  It will be a wet dough.   Put it in a large greased bowl and let it rise to double.   Don't rush it. 

After it has risen the first time, mix in the last cup of flour.   Flour your hands and pull off pieces about 1/2 cup in size and roll them into balls.  Set them in a greased ovenproof pan and let them rise to double.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

These are amazing with honey.   Amazing.   Worth the trip to the store to get some if you don't have it in the pantry. 

Baking with Natural Yeast

Here's a loaf of plain whole wheat with my pear plum vanilla jam.     De-lish.
 
Warning.  This is a brag post.  I made all of this bread.

I. Made. It. 

Which is kind of a Christmas Miracle.  In August and September, but whatever.   Just ask Eric.   He keeps grinning and patting me on the head like a toddler who just tied her shoes for the first time.   

It took us a couple of months to balance out the yeast start we got from Melissa Richardson and Caleb Warnock from their new book The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast.   As soon as I got it in July, I followed the directions to activate it.   We totally took advantage of the natural moldiness yeastiness of Indiana plus the freak summer weather - hot as an oven.   I spent days proofing jars and ice cream buckets full of yeasty stuff outside.   I learned a lot and eventually we got two great starts going and we're figuring out how to make good bread with it.

This is not your store-bought yeast.

I am not a bread maker normally.   I make bread once a year, at Christmas.  The rest of the time, I leave the bread baking to Eric.  And Eric is really good with bread.  

But there's something about this natural yeast that makes me want to play.    I feel like an alchemist mixing up some magic.  Here's a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread I made.  K2 likes it toasted and then dipped in melted honey butter.    Oh. My. Gosh.

The thing that I like about this yeast is that the dough tastes good.   None of that weird aftertaste.   And none of the gas you get if you eat a wad of dough made with store yeast.   This is good stuff.

One of our starts got really sour and I made this loaf of white sourdough bread. It was wonderful with lasagna.

I've learned a few things as we've worked with this dough.    For us, it takes a loooong proof [first rise] and a long rise again after you shape the loaves.    It takes all day or overnight to proof it and give it a first rise.    Then you shape the loaves and let it rise again.   It takes us another 3-4 hours to get it to double in size.

It's totally worth the wait.

This means that I have to plan ahead a bit, and that I absolutely positively cannot rush.   Which is really good for me because normally I rush, rush, rush all the time.  It's nice to have something that needs me to wait, wait, wait.    Every time we've waited, we've gotten really great bread.  

Here's pic of some cinnamon rolls just starting the second rise.   They were delicious.   

Want your own start?    Get a copy of the book The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast and contact the authors.  They'll send you a start for free and you can start making your own magic.   

Here's a link to the hardbound copy: 

and here's a link to the Kindle version: 

If you like to make bread, or if you want to learn how, or if you're trying to put a little less synthetic and a little more natural in your life, you'll love it. 

Crockpot Bread

It's been hot this year.

You've probably noticed.

We've been looking for ways to not use the oven.

We hit on the not-so-new-idea to use the crockpot to bake bread in.   A simple Google search will take you to dozens of people who did it before we did.

It's easy.

First, make your favorite bread dough.

While it's rising, find a trivet or some canning lids that will fit in the bottom of your crockpot.

Now find a glass or metal container that will fit inside your crockpot on top of the trivet or lids.

Turn your crockpot on high and pour a cup of water into the bottom of it with the trivet or lids.








Grease the bowl and put it on top of the trivet, inside the crockpot.

Put the dough in the bowl and cover it all.











It took about 4 hours for ours to bake through, but when it was done it was one of the tenderest loaves we've ever made.










It was great with jam.   And it didn't heat the house up.

Next up we're trying it with some homemade yeast.   I'll keep you posted. 

Danish Yule Bread

Every year I make this Danish Yule Bread at Christmas time.   K1 has a late December birthday and the year she was 1, this was her birthday cake.   

It's the only bread I make at all.   Ever.  So it's kind of a big deal for the family.   See, Mom really can bake!


This bread is a traditional Danish Christmas braided bread. It’s easier than it sounds and delicious with hot chocolate on Christmas morning…and afternoon…and evening…and after the kids go to bed.

K2 spends the entire time I make it trying to steal bits of dough and then begging me to let her eat a loaf [in its entirety, by herself] as soon as it comes out of the oven. 

As. Soon. As. 

This year, I put my refusals to music.   Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

No! You can't. eat. some!   I told you no, told you no. No you really can't. [Even if you whine.] You cannot. have. any bread, any bread, No you really can't.  [Tears won't work on me.]
...

Et cetera.

OK.   It was probably more entertaining in person.

Anyway.

I got this recipe years ago from a good friend who's mom is from Denmark, where Yule Bread is an art.  They kindly gave me the recipe.   Thank you!  My family will be eternally grateful. 

Eternally.

Danish Yule Bread

• 1 1/2 cups butter
• 4 cups milk
• 1 1/3 cups sugar 
• 3 Tbsp yeast
• 2 1/2 tsp cardamom [the fresher, the better]
• 2 tsp salt
• 10-12 Cups flour

Optional Glaze:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water

Directions:
Melt butter. Add milk. Warm to body temperature.   The butter will be good and hot by the time it has melted and when you add the milk to it, the butter will raise the temp of the milk to just exactly what you need. 

While the butter is melting, in a very large bowl mix sugar, salt and cardamom.

Soften yeast with a large spoon full of the sugar mixture and some of the warm milk.

Add yeast and milk/butter to the rest of the sugar mix in the very large bowl. Stir well.

Add flour a cup at a time.  Start with a whisk so that the flour gets incorporated quickly.   As the dough gets thicker, use a spoon instead and incorporate the flour with a rolling motion.  When it's too hard to roll with a spoon, use your hands to roll it.  Be gentle with the dough.  Handle it as little as possible so that it will stay tender.


Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise 1 hour.  

Divide dough into 8 balls.   Start by dividing it in half, then each of those two in half, then each of those four in half.   You'll get lovely balls of about the same size.  

Divide each of those into 3 smaller balls. Let rest. (Dividing takes some time, so by the time you’re done dividing everything, the first set has rested long enough.)  Cover as many as you can with the damp cloth you used to cover the dough during the first rise. 

Make a 15″ rope from each of the 3 small balls. Braid and tuck the ends under.   Put them on a greased cookie sheet.   It'll take 2 sheets.   

Let rise 30 minutes.   Start the timer when you've filled your first sheet. 

Optional glaze: Beat egg with 1 tsp water and brush on loaves.   Confession:   I never put the glaze on.   I'm way too lazy. 

Bake until golden blonde on greased sheet at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

If you didn't use the glaze, then brush melted butter all over the tops of the loaves as soon as they come out of the over. [Translation:  Take the paper off one end of a stick of butter and rub it on the hot bread.   The butter melts immediately and you don't have to wash a brush.]   

Cool loaves on parchment paper.  

Notes:  

• You do not have to do 8 loaves.  This is America.  There are no Yule Bread Police.  You can do 4 or 6 or 12.   For smaller loaves to gift, divide the dough into 12 balls.   These loaves are a great little size that fits perfectly into a gift bag for giving away.
• If your cardamom is old, then it's OK to add more - add an extra 1/2 tsp to start with.   The cardamom is the whole reason to make this bread, so don't be stingy with it. 
• One last thing - this dough is sweet and delicious and if you eat too much it will give you painful gas because the yeast will love your inner body temp.  Trust me.    Don't. Eat. The Dough.   Not even a bit, because then you won't be able to stop.