I Like It Black

Wherever I go I like to try the regional and traditional food. As long as it's safe, I mean... I have to know what I am eating and there are some things I would never touch even if eating them would make me a millionaire. I am being careful mostly when it comes to meat, but trying bread in most cases is absolutely safe.
So, trying different breads in different places I have come to the conclusion that very often bread eaten far away from home somehow is tasting better, at least for the first few days. After the first few days very often I notice it is not that good after all and I start to be missing my favorite bread from the bakery next to my place (next to my old place I should say, since I am speaking of Poland. I haven't been missing Belgian bread for a single day in my life and I will leave it with no comments. I love Belgian croissants, though.).
Anyway, trying all those breads that cannot really compete with the bread from "my" bakery I have discovered few that actually can. It's not that they would win, because they all are quite different, but I would place all of them together on the highest level of my private bread-podium.
But if I really had to pick a winner... Well, in that case the gold goes to the traditional Lithuanian bread (sorry, my favorite bakery round the corner).
You can get "Lithuanian Black Bread" in some supermarkets in Poland and it is not bad, even though it's not extremely nice either. But you can go up to the north-east of Poland, or even to Lithuania itself, and there you will get the real stuff (plus few other very nice regional treats and beautiful surroundings to spend time in) which is very well worth the trip . And when you are back home there is a big chance you will start trying to bake your own black bread - at least I did. And I must say it was not easy... I have tried quite a few recipes, and it never was what I wanted - until I tried a recipe for Peasant Black Bread out of a book that I brought many years ago from... the USA. It is not exactly the same bread, but close enough. Delicious. I love it, my kid's love it as well... OK, my husband does not love it, but actually I don't mind at all. That means that I can have more, so why would I worry? ;-)

Peasant Black Bread
(two loaves)

3.1/2 cups rye flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons caraway seed
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon instant coffee (powder or crystals)
3 teaspoons salt
2.1/2 cups hot water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
5-6 cups unbleached or all-purpose flour

Thoroughly mix rye flour, cocoa, sugar, caraway, yeast, coffee and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Stir in water, vinegar, molasses, and oil; beat until smooth.
Stir in enough unbleached flour to make a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5-7 minutes).
Place in an oiled bowl; turn to oil top of dough. Cover, let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).
Punch dough down. Divide in halves, shape each half into a ball and place on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk (about 1 hour).
Bake at 180ºC 45-50 minutes, or until done.

I Hate Bananas

If somebody asked me to name the fruit I don't like I wouldn't think twice. Bananas. That's the correct answer.
For some reason I have never liked bananas, banana drinks, banana puddings, banana candy or anything that looks, smells or tastes like bananas. Things that have to do with bananas are not for me - that is the rule and I'm not going to change it. I don't have an impression I'm missing anything by not eating bananas - but still world would be less beautiful without them.
See, As I have already stated I don't like bananas and that's the rule. It's holy. But what kind of a rule would it be if there were no exception on it? So. To make my rule quite perfect I have found an exception - and that's banana bread. I love it.
The thing about banana bread is that even though it has to do with bananas the banana taste and flavor are not very obvious. It doesn't smell like raw bananas, nor like artificial banana aroma. It just smells like... well, like banana bread, I would say. No more and no less. And, what is even more important, it does not have the consistency of bananas - even though when I think of the consistency of those mashed bananas that I put in there... OK. let's say the consistency part has not been mentioned here ;-)
Anyway, banana bread I could eat every day. Still warm out of the oven, toasted with butter, not toasted with or without butter, with whipped cream or without it... Banana bread is very flexible, takes pretty much everything. I like flexibility.

Banana Bread
(proportion for two loaves)

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 cups fully ripe bananas, mashed (5-6 bananas)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3.1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine sugar, shortening, bananas, eggs and milk in a mixing bowl, beat well.
Blend remaining ingredients, add to banana mixture and mix until blended.
Turn into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 180ºC  45 to 50 minutes, or until done.
Get the pans out of the oven, leave the loaves in pans  to cool.
Enjoy your banana bread :-) 
 

Breadtime Story

 

What is the best time to bake bread? If you'd asked me this question not so long ago I'd have said any time is good for baking bread - as long as you have the time to knead, then wait for the dough to raise, then form, than wait again... and wait even more for the bread to bake and cool down just enough for you to eat it when it's still nicely warm...
But now I think there is such a thing as the best time for baking bread - that's Sunday afternoon.
My Sundays are usually lazier than all the other days. No work, no shopping to be done... Sunday is a perfect day for spending some time in the kitchen. And why do I prefer afternoons over mornings? Well, to me it's quite obvious: when I start the bread-baking process in the afternoon, my bread is ready to be tasted somewhere in the evening. Just when I'm sitting on the couch and watching TV and feel like having a little bite of something. Fresh bread with butter is one of the best somethings I can think of, really.
And if anybody wonders why Saturday afternoons and evenings should be any worse - here comes the answer.
I am not one of those TV addicted folks. I hardly ever watch anything (unless there is some interesting sports events, but that's something else - sports events do not go well with baking anything when it comes to me), but now for a couple weeks I have been watching a series that happens to be shown just on Sunday evenings...

Round Sesame Bread
(two loaves)

2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk, scalded
3 tablespoons sugar
1 to 1,1/2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces
1 egg
6-7 cups flour
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons sesame seed

Add yeast to lukewarm water and stir until dissolved.
In a big cup combine scalded milk, sugar, salt, and butter and stir until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm.
Beat egg lightly. Add egg and yeast mixture to cooled milk mixture.
Divide flour and liquid ingredients in halves.
Put 2 cups of flour into the bowl of food processor (with the steel blade attached), add half of the liquid. Process a few seconds until thoroughly blended. Start adding the rest of one half flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Keep doing this until dough forms into a sticky, smooth ball around edge of bowl.Let the ball of dough spin around for 2o to 3o seconds, then turn the dough onto floured board and knead by hand for a minute or two. Form the dough into a neat ball.
Transfer dough into a greased bowl and rotate to coat all sides. Cover with a towel and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for 1,1/2 to 2 hours, or until double in bulk.
Repeat procedure, using the other half of flour and liquid ingredients. Do not combine the two balls of dough, unless you want to make one really huge loaf.
When the balls of dough sitting in the bowls are double in bulk, punch them down and turn onto a lightly floured board; form into balls again. Place the balls on baking sheets, lightly sprinkled with flour (I use pizza sheets with holes in the bottom) and form them into nice loaves.
Brush each loaf with milk and sprinkle with sesame seed. Cover and put in a warm place to rise for 1,1/2 to 2 hours.
Bake at 180ºC for 40 minutes or until the loaves are nicely browned and crusty.

 

 

Who Bakes Bread, Anyway?

I do, sometimes. And some other people I know. And many, many people that I don't know - of that I'm sure, somehow.
And why bake bread when there is a great choice in supermarkets and bakeries? Well, I don't know some other people's reasons, but I do know mine - and I have to admit they are not rational at all. It is cheaper and easier to buy bread at a supermarket or at a bakery, and some sorts of bread that you can buy are quite excellent. The thing is, you can buy nice stuff, but by buying it you will not get your kitchen full of this wonderful aroma of freshly-baked bread - and I love that smell. I also like to watch bread in the oven and then taste it when it's still quite hot. And I simply think there is something special about baking bread in the times when everybody is in a hurry and nobody has time - baking bread is making me slow down...

Basic Dinner Rolls
(16 rolls)

4 to 4.3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 egg (at room temperature)
*1 egg beaten with a little bit of milk, poppy seed, sesame seed - optional

Combine 1.1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl.
Heat milk, water and butter until very warm. Add liquid and egg to flour mixture; beat until smooth (about 3 to 4 minutes).
Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface, continue to work in flour until dough can be kneaded. Knead until smooth and elastic, but still soft (about 5 to 7 minutes).
Cover dough with a bowl or a pan, let it rest about 20 minutes.
Shape rolls as desired. Place them on a greased baking sheet, cover and let rise until double in bulk (about 15-20 minutes).
Now you can brush the rolls with the egg-milk mixture and sprinkle them with poppy or sesame seed.
Place the sheet in the oven and bake at 220ºC about 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.