Bread Tutorials

Cinnamon Roll Challah Bread aka ChanniyumRoll

A few weeks ago I was invited to participate in the National Festival of Breads baking contest that’s put on by the Kansas Wheat association and sponsored by King Arthur Flour and Red Star Yeast. I’ve never been invited to one of these things before so I was a little apprehensive about entering, but decided to give it a go.

After thinking long and hard about what type of bread I should make as my entry in to this contest, I decided to keep things simple but creative at the same time. I thought about the kinds of breads my family and friends enjoy, I thought about the foods that inspire me. My conclusion was that breakfast is my favorite meal to share with the kids, so taking some encouragement from them and inspiration from one of my favorite instagram superheroes (she has super challah powers!), I’m entering what is a blend of classic cinnamon roll and challah bread, which results in what I think is a delicious treat the whole family can enjoy.

Using King Arthur All-Purpose flour and Red Star Yeast for this recipe were no brainers. King Arthur’s flours produce the soft dough you want in a recipe like this and the Red Star Yeast provides an amazing rise for a super pillowy chew that you want in a cinnamon roll.

So, without further ado here is my entry in to this Festival. Making it is a very straight forward process and I’m sure you’ll have wonderful results at home! If you are new to baking, don’t be intimidated. This bread is simple to make, the dough is very forgiving, and you’ll enjoy making this for sure. I have listed all of the tools you may need to make this bread below the recipe too.

Helpful tools for making this bread

16.12.18 By nick 1 Comment

Greek Feta Pull Apart Bread – Step By Step

This pullapart bread is so easy to make! Once in a while you get a little creative in the kitchen. Either because you’re short on time and just make things up as you go or because you don’t have the right ingredients so you just toss things in and hope things work out. But once in a while someone sends you a recipe tip that stirs up the imagination and you just go for it.

This last scenario is what happened to me the other day when my wife sent me a link to this YouTube video showing Aki making a nice looking Greek appetizer. The bread is basically a pull-apart loaf that has olive oil and is stuffed with spices and Feta cheese.

The following items will help you to make this bread. If you end up purchasing any of these items, the site will get a small portion and encourage us to keep going!

Knowing that we were having a dinner party at our house the next evening, I thought I’d give this bread a try and see if I could make it as good as that video made it seem. I did some research and it seems to be a fairly unique bread too. And to top it off this bread seemed pretty easy to make so after we fed the kids I got to work in the kitchen to mix the dough.

Soft, Chewy, And Delicious

This bread turned out way better than I expected. First off, the smell throughout the house was amazing thanks to all the good ingredients that went in to it. I was also pleasantly surprised that the mustard sauce topping wasn’t at all overpowering like I thought it would be. Guests kept commenting on how good this bread turned out, so I guess it’s a winner and a repeat contender for sure!

The overview of this Greek feta bread goes something like this. For the dough, all you need are these ingredients: Flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, eggs, and olive oil. You mix it all up and let it rise, then you roll it and fill it. For the filling, you mix mustard and olive oil and spread it around the dough, then top with rosemary and oregano. I didn’t have any fresh so I used some dried herbs we had in a jar. Then you crumble and sprinkle the Feta cheese. From there you cut it in to rows, lay them on top of one another, then you cut the rows in to pieces, then lay them one on top of the other in an oiled bread pan. After an hour of rising you bake it and voila!

Here are the steps in a little more detail.

Allow the bread to rest for about half an hour after baking or it could fall apart unexpectedly!

Have some olives and olive oil available for dipping and this will be the hit of your dinner party!

1.11.18 By nick 2 Comments

Hokkaido Milk Bread

If you’re like me and like to look at bread photos for inspiration, you usually have a back log of breads that you drool over and want to try but for some reason or another haven’t yet had a chance to make. Either because you kind of forget about it when it’s time to bake or because the recipe looks more complicated than the energy that you have for the project.

This milk bread is one of those for me. It uses a Japanese method called tangzhong to make the final product extra fluffy because the result of the tangzhong is that you can make a bread which is more moist and therefore extra spongy.

This bread sounds mythical and exotic, doesn’t it? Hokkaido is Japan’s second largest island and its capital is Sapporo, maker of the famous Japanese beer and host to the Olympics of 1972. The Japanese milk bread became quite popular in the 19th century when the government encouraged citizens to use and drink local milk to support the farmers. Creative bakers seized the opportunity and created this now famous bread from Hokkaido that is known for it’s supple texture and fluffy characteristics.

The thing about this particular loaf of bread is how easy and versatile it really is to make. The tangzhong takes about 3 minutes to make and the bread can be made in to a loaf like I made it or you could make it in to rolls and maybe even other exotic shapes. The thing is that it’s really fun to work with and is a super fluffy bread.

The recipe

Hokkaido Milk Bread

This Japanese milk bread is soft, fluffy, and delicious!

Tangzhong

3/4 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Flour

Dough

500 Grams King Arthur AP Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Salt
15 Grams Milk Powder
1 Tbsp yeast
1/2 Stick Butter
2 Whole Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk

Egg Wash

1 Whole Egg

Making the Tangzhong

This step is fairly simple but after you’re done, it’ll need about 15 minutes to cool so now would be a good time to warm up about 1/2 cup of milk and your yeast to let it wake and bloom.

In a pan over medium heat, add milk and flour. Combine until the mixture thickens and becomes gelatinous. Remove from heat and let cool.

The mixture should resemble a roux and should only take a minute or so to get done.

Making the Milk Bread Dough

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar.

Add the dry ingredients, then the tangzhong, then the eggs. Mix at low speed until combined and start adding the milk a little at a time until it’s all incorporated.

As the dough begins to come together, slowly add the milk a little bit at a time and increase the speed of your mixer to the second speed. The dough should be fairly sticky but should clean the sides of the bowl as it’s being mixed.

I mixed mine for about 15 minutes before it was ready so don’t despair if it looks too wet!

Form the dough in to a ball and cover the bowl of the mixer with plastic to keep the dough moist and prevent a dry skin from developing on the dough.

Let it rest for about an hour or so until it doubles in size.

Once doubled, dump it out on to a floured surface and divide the dough in to 4 pieces.

Roll each piece in to a ball and put in a greased baking pan. Cover lightly with plastic for another hour or so until the balls have risen nicely, roughly doubled again.

The Hokkaido bread dough balls before and after rising

Preheat your oven to 450˚F about halfway through.

Beat the eggs and wash over the dough before putting the loaf in the top rack of the oven to bake.

About 15 minutes in, turn the loaf and move to the lower rack.

At this time, lower the temperature to 400˚F.

20 minutes later, remove from the oven and let cool before enjoying!

hokkaido milk bread out of the oven fresh

For your reference, all of the equipment used for making this loaf are listed below. I

23.10.18 By nick Leave a Comment

Bread with Yeasted Water

There are many ways to make bread. From slow sourdough breads that can take a few days from the time you mix to the time you bake to biscuits that can be mixed and cooked within a few moments, the variety of leavening agents available for the home baker are quite diverse.

By far the most popular method that folks use to bake bread at home is with store bought yeast. Just cut open the little bag and add to your mixing bowl and the dough will “double in size” in fairly short order. From there the baker shapes the dough, lets it rest for a little longer, and off it goes in to the oven for a tasty bread in half an hour.

One of the lesser known ways of making bread is by using yeasted water. Yeasted water is the result of adding something that has a little bit of fruit to a jar, and topping it off with water before sealing the jar and waiting for a few days. I first read about this baking method from this post a few years ago. Being the curious cat that I am, I researched a bit and found very little online at the time but decided to take the post’s words as truth and baked one of my first breads with “leavened water” that I made from plums. You can read the post and get a glimpse of the process but I’ll detail it here again for you. One thing that I think I omitted to say on the original post is that you should make your jar as full of water as possible in order to leave as much air as possible out of the jar. The air could cause your infusion to grow mold. This happened to me once and am sure is fairly common given that you want to generally keep these infusions in a warm area for a while.

So since fall is here it means that our local fruit farm had an abundance of prune plums, which are by far my favorite type of plum, so we bought an unnecessarily large amount. We sure had our fill for the season! I also made some plum jam and decided to make this infused yeasted water bread again with the last few plums of the year. You certainly don’t need to use plums for this, so look around your kitchen and get creative! You can use just about any fruit you want to use. Apples and raisins are other good fruits to use but use your imagination and give it a go.

The first step is to wash you jar and your plum really well. From there all you have to do is put the plums in the jar and fill the jar to the top with water before tightening the lid. Now place your creation somewhere it can be left alone for a few days, but nowhere you could forget about because if you do, the gas that gets built up in the jar could cause the jar to explode and thus remind you of where you had left it!

Check in on your infusion once a day so you can observe how things change but the you’ll know the mixture is ready when there are bubbles at the top of the jar.

If you are not ready to bake when the infusion is ready, you can put it in the fridge for a few days but note that this will increase the amount of time it takes for the bread to proof and may require a little bit of “spiking” with regular yeast. I put my infusion in the fridge for a couple of days this time and didn’t notice much of a slowdown but your mileage may vary.

When you do decide to bake, substitute the water in your formula for your infused yeast water and don’t add any yeast. Mix it all together and watch the magic happen. If after a few hours you don’t see any growth in your dough or it’s really slow, don’t hesitate to add a little bit of yeast to your dough and knead it again for a bit to incorporate everything. There’s no shame in that, you’ll still get the subtle aroma of the fruit and your results will be great!

Yeasted Plum Water Bread Recipe

500 grams King Arthur All-Purpose flour
335 ml yeasted plum water
22 grams salt
22 grams sugar

In a medium bowl add your flour, salt, and sugar then add the water. Mix to combine and cover. Using more or less a sourdough method, check in on the dough after half and hour and do a stretch and fold. Do a stretch and fold every half hour or so if your dough is slow to rise. If it’s rising quickly just one of two folds until it can pass the windowpane test easily will suffice.

Once it’s grown and nearly doubled, turn on to a floured surface and pre-shape your loaf to your desired final shape. Put in to a proofing basket and proof for an hour or so at room temperature or in the fridge overnight.

Pre-heat your oven to 500˚F and once ready, score your loaf and load it in the oven before turning the oven down to 450˚F. If you’re using a cloche like I did, bake it with the lid on for 15 minutes and finish baking without the lid, another 15 minutes or so.

Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool before enjoying.

Check out the full video of the process below. If you have any questions leave a comment on YouTube and make sure to subscribe to the channel!

All of the gear that I used to make the bread is listed below:

30.03.17 By nick Leave a Comment

How to revive a dead sourdough starter

Having been working with sourdough starters for a while, I’ve seen and done a lot to my creations. However, when I first started using sourdough I was shocked by what seemed to be quickly dying sourdough. I would make the starter, bake with it on a regular basis, and be happy. But if I went away for vacation and forgot about the starter for a few weeks, I’d be disappointed to find a dark mass with icky liquid on top.

At that stage I figured the sourdough starter was bad. I mean, it smelled fairly strongly (not in a good way) and looked pretty beat up. So I would eventually end up throwing it away and starting over from scratch. Truth be told, that kind of sidelined be from using sourdough for a few years since I kept making perfectly good starters and they ended up dying. I figured I just didn’t have the baker’s equivalent of a green thumb, whatever that may be.

all this time, I was doing it wrong!