So, I’ve mentioned in a few posts that I’ve been making the No-Knead bread thats been making the rounds over the internets for the last year or two. Yes, I know, I’m a little late to the game. But I’ve really gotten in to it lately, and I’ve really been enjoying it. I first read about it on the Kitchn, although I don’t remember which post it was. But not long after I made my first couple of loafs, I heard about the Artisan Bread in five minutes a day, and I really became hooked.

I haven’t actually picked up a copy of their book yet, although it’s on my list (unfortunately, it’s a long list…) but the concept of saving a portion of the previous dough and using it to make a new batch kind of got me interested. I know it’s not a new concept – not even to me, as I’ve seen it other places – but it’s one of those times of hitting the right idea at the right time. I had already started making the No-Knead bread, this was really just an extention of it.

So one day, I made a double batch of No-Knead bread and stuck it in the fridge. A day or so later, I pulled it out, took about 1/3 to 1/2 of it, and made a loaf. When I went to make a second loaf, I reserved a small portion of the old dough, and mixed it with the same proportions of water and flour as originally in the recipe.

The results, truly surprised me. I mean, I thought it would work, in theory but it was really kind of awesome to put it in to practice. I’m still working on perfecting my technique with it, sometimes my dough ends up too slack and sometimes too dry, but I’ve yet to have anything come out that wasn’t just 20x better than any other breads I’ve made.

I’ve been using the same ‘starter’ dough for a couple of weeks now, and the flavor just keeps getting better, developing more flavor with each batch. I”m also starting to experiment with it, for instance with an pizza that I made the other night. It’s become easy enough to make bread that we’ve been having it with meals atleast three times or more a week now, which Mr. Man and Miss Thing are both loving to pieces. What really elevated it to new heights though, was when I started using a piece of pampered chef stoneware to bake it in. The crust was good in the le crueset I was using, but it’s a-freaking-mazing in stoneware.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups Unbleached Flour
• 3 cups water
• 2 tbs Rye Flour (optional)
• 1/2 tsp Yeast
• 4 tsp Kosher Salt
• Extra Flour for dusting and shaping

Method:

• The day(s) before you want bread, mix together the flour, water, yeast and kosher salt to form a fairly wet and sticky dough
• Pour the dough in to a large glass container and cover with a towel
• Place dough in the fridge and allow to rest atleast 24 hours
• The day you want to make bread, flour a working surface
• Pour a little less than half of the refrigerated dough on to the floured work surface
• Fold the dough over on itself a few times ( or until it becomes a little less sticky – depending on weather, climate and flour your dough may be stickier)
• Dust the top of the dough with a little more flour
• Rest dough for a few minutes, and then transfer to a lightly floured towel.
• Allow to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size
• Place your baking vessel (any heavy, covered pot will do, but I recommend either stoneware or cast iron) in to the cold oven
• Preheat the oven to 450° for atleast 30 minutes to allow the baking vessel to become thoroughly preheated
• Gently transfer your dough to the hot baking vessel, cover and bake for 30 minutes
• Remove lid and Reduce Heat to 350° and bake until bread is golden brown
• Cool on a rack
• To make more bread, simply save 1/4 (or so) of the original dough, and remix it with the same ingredients listed above, except for the yeast since you you will already have the yeast in your starter dough.
• Refrigerate for atleast 24 hours, and repeat.

Because I love cooking so much, I tend to haunt various grocery stores – hunting out those small specialty shops, and searching for unique ingredients to play with. Every so often, I find one of those specialty grocery stores with a prepared food counter – and have on more than one occasion seen Roasted Garlic for sale in said counter, and I have to say – I’m boggled that anyone would buy roasted garlic. Especially at those prices… ($14.99 a pound, anyone?)

So every so often I make a few heads of garlic up, and use them in various recipes. If you’ve never had roasted garlic, it’s flavor is a little mellower than fresh garlic, and just a teeny bit sweeter. It’s excellent as a quick way to punch up a sauce or vinegarette, or if you really love the garlic, just spread it over a piece of bread instead of butter.

Ingredients:

• 1 full head of garlic
• Olive Oil

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Cut the top of the head of garlic off, just enough to expose the top of each clove
• Drizzle Olive Oil into the garlic, allowing the oil to seep down in between the individual cloves
• Wrap the garlic in a piece of aluminum foil
• Bake for 1 hour
• To use, simply squeeze the now soft and carmelized garlic out of the paper shell
• If desired, puree roasted garlic to form a soft spread
• Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks

Yesterday, the sun finally came out after many days of rain and I finally felt like I could dry off for a little while. In celebration, I ran some errands I’d been putting off during the rain – including a trip to Costco. While I was there, I was sorely tempted by their bakery’s whole wheat bread and their Ciabatta Rolls. However, I resisted – I have a bowl full of starter sitting on the window sill, fermenting and plenty of flour and other baking needs. Later this week I think I’ll try making some sourdough or maybe try my hand at Ciabbatta. Unfortunately, both sourdough and Ciabatta breads are both a fairly time intensive process (overnight or more rise times). So for a lazy afternoon bread, this recipe is my go-to workhorse. It’s an infinitely tweakable basic recipe. I used this same recipe back many moons ago when I was Vegan with Soy Milk, and it worked lovely. In my opinion, using 1/2 White Flour and 1/2 Whole Wheat gave it a perfect balance of taste, texture and rise, but you can use all white – or if you like a very dense bread, all wheat.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Sour Cream
• 3 tbls Brown Sugar
• 2 tsps Salt
• 3 Tbls Butter
• 1 tbls Buttermilk
• 4 and 1/2 tsps Active Dry Yeast (or two packets)
• 1 and 1/2 cups warm water (105°-115° F)
• 1 and 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 Cup Milled Flax Seed
• 1/4 Cup Wheat Bran
• 2-4 cups Unbleached Flour

Method:

• In a small saucepan, melt together the Sour Cream, Sugar, salt and Butter until combined. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• In a small bowl, stir together the Whole Wheat Flour, flax seed and Bran.
• Pour Water in to Stand Mixer Bowl and add yeast. Allow to sit for a couple of minutes.
• Add the Cream Mixture, the whole wheat mixture, and one cup of the unbleached flour
• Begin Kneading with Dough Hook
• Add Flour in intervals until dough clings to hook, cleans the side of the bowl, and is no longer “sticky”.
• Shape dough in to a round ball and transfer to an oiled bowl, turning to coat top.
• Cover dough and allow to rise in a warm place for an hour
• Punch Down Dough.
• Divide dough in to two portions.
• Roll Each Portion out in to a rectangle about 1/2 an inch thick.
• Roll the rectangle of dough up in to a roll, pinching ends together and tucking underneath to form a loaf shape
• Place in to an Oiled Bread Pan
• Repeat for second portion of dough
• Cover Both Pans with a cloth and place in a warm place to rise for an hour
• Bake at 400° for 30 Minutes.
• Remove from Pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

A long time ago – it must have been atleast 7 or 8 years ago, I read an article on some frugal living website that I had come across. I don’t remember much about the site now, but they did get me started on one little habit that I really love. It was called “Garbage Soup” or something like that – I don’t really recall exactly. I’ve renamed it to “Scrap Stock” but it really is the same thing. Basically what I do is over the course of … however long, I take all those unwanted scraps of food – leftovers, Garlic Peels, onion ends, potato peels, bones, fat trimmings, trimmed ends of herbs – basically anything plant or animal that I won’t ~eat~ but isn’t really bad, and I put them in to a large zip top bag in the fridge. When I’ve accumulated enough to fill up my stock pot, I fill it up, cover it with water and simmer it for four or five hours. That is the easy part. The annoying fun part comes when it’s all done simmering. Bleh. Since I don’t really like a lot of sediment in my broth, I usually try to filter twice.  – which can be a pain, but I think is worthwhile.

This batch made enough for me to put some in to 1 qt mason jars, and put some in zip top bags in the freezer. When I double filter the broth, as listed here, I also end up getting less fat in my broth that I need to separate out – in fact, it’s usually such a small amount that I don’t bother. At some point, I’ll find something more sustainable than paper towels to use for the finer strain, but right now it’s the best method I’ve hit upon. Sometimes when I’m pressed for time (or feeling lazy) I’ll skip that step. The only real drawback to skipping that step is appearance, usually. The sediment doesn’t really carry any off flavors or anything – it simply makes the broth kind of cloudy.

Ingredients:

• Enough Scraps to fill Stockpot
• Enough water to cover said scraps
• Kosher Salt
• White Wine

Equipment:

• Stock Pot
• Large Ladle or Spoon
• Sturdy Spoon
• Fine Mesh Sieve
• bowl that sieve will fit in to
• colander or strainer
• bowl that colander will fit in to
• Paper Towels
• Storage Vessel(s) of some kind (jars, tupperware, etc…)

Method:

• Put Scraps in to Stock Pot and cover with water
• Bring Scraps to a boil
• Reduce heat and add a splash or three of White Wine and a couple pinches of Kosher Salt
• Simmer for four hours
• Take Fine Mesh Sieve and place inside of bowl
• Working in batches, first Use the ladle to transfer the “chunkies” from the stock pot to the Sieve
• Press the chunkies with your sturdy spoon to squeeze some of the excess liquid out of them
• Take Colander and place inside of a bowl
• Line Colander with a paper towel
• Pour the broth from the sieve bowl in to the paper towel lined colander
• Allow to drain
• Squeeze and Discard Paper towel when sediment build up impedes broth flow
• Repeat until entire contents of stock pot have been drained
• Transfer Broth to storage vessel and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.