This time for our bread baking challenge we made Carrot Bread and Olive Spelt Bread. I have to say I really liked both of these breads. Check out what the other bakers did with the recipes and our esteemed leader Michelle at her blog Big Black Dog.
First the carrot bread; it was great, and just sweet enough but with great yeasted bread quality. It was very good with cream cheese, and toasted with butter, forget about it! I took all the dough from the ½ recipe and used it to make one big loaf. It seems that most of the ½ recipes don’t make enough dough to fill the pan twice, but using it all made a nice loaf. I had enough to share and I did! Everyone loved it and I certainly will make it again.
I had a few stumbles with the Olive Spelt bread. Focaccia was calling to me, so I oiled up my sheet pan and spread out the very wet and sticky dough, let it rise, dimpled, sprinkled with kosher salt and baked. The smell was amazing; it looked amazing, but was absolutely glued to the pan. It took me about 3 days to chisel it out. I thought that I had put enough olive oil on the pan and the dough to keep it from sticking. Wrong! Not to be deterred, I whipped up another batch of dough and this time just shaped it as usual and put it on parchment paper on my pizza peel. It spread out quite a bit. Once again it smelled fantastic and came off the stone looking great. I let it cool and sliced it and it was delicious! I love olives. Next time I’m going to add some garlic to the dough, shape it as a baguette and make bruschetta. Fresh tomatoes, onions, basil, olive oil, more garlic, piled on top, wait I have to wipe the drool off the keyboard!
Now, I have a confession to make. I miss kneading. The rhythmic motion of turning the dough over and over, feeling it come alive in your hands, smelling it, seeing the blisters start to form on the surface. So, I made my favorite challah dough and did a six strand braid. Ah, desire calmed.
The weather today is gorgeous, so enough time sitting here at the keyboard. Garden work is calling, the bees are calling, so until our next bread adventure together, happy baking.
20 comments:
So glad to hear your bees are doing well!
To tell you the truth, I miss kneading too but I often sneak a knead or 2 with the No-knead breads! ;)
Toasting the carrot bread added a little something special and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Sorry you had trouble with the Olive Bread sticking but I had to scrape my Olive Focaccia from the pan with a spatula! But we loved the Olive Bread...so good! Definitely a keeper recipe.
sorry about your mom, your breads look wonderful great pictures and wow the last one is amazing
Great job ....thanks for sharing.......
I should've served my carrot bread with cream cheese. That's what was missing! Thanks for the suggestion.
Too bad about the focaccia but your spelt bread looks great! I like the idea of making bruschetta out of it. Great job!
I love the title of your blog. And also great job of not letting that sticking bread deter you from making another loaf. I've had that problem too. Great job!
The spelt dough was very wet. I made focaccia with mine as well, but I live in a very Arid spot and mine didn't stick. I liked the carrot bread the best, I must admit. I didn't try mine with cream cheese, but that is a wonderful way to eat toast in the morning.
Mmmm...I love the idea of bruschetta. Thanks for sharing that one. Your breads both look great. I miss kneading too but I sure do love the convenience of having dough in the fridge and fresh bread anytime. Nice to know how to do both. :) By the way, your challah is beautiful!
I can so identify with the feel of dough under your hands as it comes together. Love it! Seems like most everyone had problems with a little or a lot of spread on the spelt bread. I too had quite a bit of spread but the taste is great.
I didn't think of eating the carrot bread with cream cheese - what a great idea!
What a beautiful challah and I can identify with needing to knead ;)
Your breads look beautiful! Too bad about the foccacia sticking to the pan, but I couldn't tell from the photo. And thanks for the tip on toasting the carrot bread.
Your breads both look beautiful. It is strange that we have a craving to work the dough, but I do as well. But there are so many recipes that require that action we'll have to save our kneading for those!
I haven't made the olive spelt bread, yet. Partly because of lack of time and also, I don't like olives at all. I have been trying to come up with a replacement and garlic will be perfect. Thanks for the idea!
Thanks for all the comments. We all knead to be needed.
Love your bread and I, too, love olives! Also, love your community garden. I'm involved with my mg association where we have a garden that the produce goes to the food bank. But I love your idea of raised beds and making it a community project.
Kneading is definitely calming. It's so great for taking out your aggressions!
Both of these breads look delicious. I love the foccaccia/pizza idea for the olive bread!
Adding garlic to the olive bread is something I am definitely going to try. Your community garden looks great. I grow in raised beds made out of cinder blocks. You can plant in the holes!
Your challah braid is beautiful!
YOur breads do look good. I still have to make the carrot bread. Maybe this week.
I enjoyed reading about your HBinFive breads. Your Challah really made me sigh, though! I have only baked breads from this no-knead method for over 2 years, since the first book. I am thinking about trying a "conventional" loaf, just to let my hands have the experience again.
I must try the carrot bread soon! Looks so very tempting!
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