Savory Honey Beer Bread

Our favorite beekeeper, Steve Repasky joined us for dinner on Saturday.  Steve is a Master Beekeeper, the owner of Meadow Sweet Apiaries and the President of Burgh Bees (check out their new and improved website!).  Steve is also working on his first book, Swarm Essentials, which should be out soon--or at least in time for the next swarm season!  I'll be sure to let everyone know when it's out.

Steve is also a beer lover, which is why I tried this recipe out for his visit.  The recipe comes from a New York Times article about wheat berries.  The article stresses that sifting the flour makes for a much lighter loaf.  We had only a little whole wheat flour on hand, so I fiddled with the original recipe a bit. The rosemary adds a lovely aroma to the bread but doesn't overpower it. There's a slight hint of sweetness, but this is very much a quick, savory bread.  

Savory Honey Beer Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon (yes! tablespoon!) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons butter, melted
12 ounces beer (lager)
Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Stir the honey and melted butter together and add them to the flour with the beer. Stir with a whisk or wooden spoon until thoroughly combined. Spoon into the prepared loaf pan, tap it on the counter a few times to get rid of any air holes and bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean--about 50 minutes.  Let cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  It's great toasted the next day, too!

Sourdough Honey Whole-Wheat English Muffins

This recipe is not a lot of work, but it does require a bit of a commitment, so if you're a commitment-phobe, you might just want to buy a package of whole wheat English muffins and be done with it.

Ah, but where's the fun in that, especially when you can make your own sour dough starter and then cook up a fresh batch of whole wheat English muffins that will have your family and friends saying, "You made these?"

So, bear with me here (or, if you prefer, just go ahead and laugh at me and move on!).  The biggest commitment comes with creating the sour dough starter, which takes three days.  Once you have the starter established, you can keep it going in your fridge and, with a little thinking ahead, can whip up a lovely plate of English muffins that are so much better (and likely better for you) than store bought.

The recipe for the sourdough starter and the English muffins both come from Vegetarian Times.  You'll find more sourdough recipes there, too!

Sourdough Starter

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon quick-rise (not regular) yeast

Use a quart glass jar with a wide mouth.  Stir the flour and yeast together and then add 1 cup of warm water (about 110 degrees).  Place the lid loosely on the jar and let sit a warmish (70+) spot for 12 hours.

Stir the starter and discard half (or, if you're ambitious, use the half you'd toss out to start another jar).  To the remaining starter, add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water and stir to combine.  Repeat this step every 12 hours for the next three days (72 hours).  (Hey! I said it was a commitment!)

The starter is now ready to use for the English muffin recipe.  Any remaining starter can be put in the refrigerator.  It should be fed and/or used within a week.  To feed the starter, stir it down and then remove half (use this starter in a recipe or discard).  If you have 1 cup of starter left, then stir in 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water and put it back in the fridge.  (If you have 1/2 cup starter left, stir in 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.)

Sourdough Honey Whole-Wheat English Muffins

The dough for this recipe needs to sit overnight to develop, so it takes a little planning ahead (that is, once you've made the sourdough starter).
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt.
cornmeal for dusting (the finer the cornmeal, the better, but use what you have)

In a large bowl, stir the starter, whole-wheat flour, honey and water until well combined.  Cover loosely and let sit overnight.  This mixture will get very bubbly!

The next day, stir together 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.  Add this to the whole-wheat dough.  Stir until well combined.  Add more of the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and knead until the dough is no longer sticky.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured board to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut out muffins using about a 3-inch round cutter (I used the top of a large, wide glass).  Depending upon the size of your cutter, you should get between 6 and 8 muffins.  Dust tops and bottoms with cornmeal, cover loosely and let sit for about an hour until the muffins are a bit puffy.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over high heat for about a minute.  Lightly spray with cooking oil and turn heat down to medium.  Cook muffins about 3 to 5 minutes per side, until they're nicely browned on both sides.  You'll be surprised by how much they rise while they're cooking!  Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving.  Makes between 6 and 8 muffins.

Honey Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Bread

Winter weather warnings today found me hunkered down at home grading papers and baking.   It's nice to take a break from grading to punch down a dough and form it into a loaf.  This recipe is adapted from a February/March 2010 Taste of Home magazine. It's remarkably tender given that it uses almost 100% whole wheat flour.  It also has a nice, nutty taste that is enhanced when it's toasted.  The original recipe makes three loaves, way too much for our little family!  I did my best to halve the recipe and am pretty happy with the results, but note that the amounts are approximate!  

Honey Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Bread

1 1/2 cups hot (not boiling) water

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

1 package (1/4 oz) rapid rise active dry yeast

1/8 cup bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 - 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 or 2 teaspoons butter

Stir the oil and honey into the hot water to dissolve the honey.  In the bowl of a mixer, whisk the yeast, bread flour, 2 cups of wheat flour and salt.  With the mixer running, add the water/honey mixture and mix until well combined. (You might need to stop the mixture and stir it by hand to be sure all of the flour is incorporated.) Using the dough hook of the mixer, turn the mixer on again and begin beating the dough, adding up to another cup of flour until the dough pulls away from the sides and becomes elastic.  Knead the dough for at least five minutes, adding more flour to prevent it from sticking it to the sides--but add as little as possible. Add the sunflower seeds and either knead a few minutes more in the mixer or by hand.  Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free spot  for about an hour.  (I heat 2 cups of water to boiling in the microwave and then put the dough in the microwave with the hot water for the rise.)  After the dough doubles in bulk, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and form into a loaf.  Place in an oiled loaf pan (5x8) and let it rise again--about 30 to 45 minutes.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once the dough has again doubled in bulk, put it into the preheated oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes, until well-browned.  Remove from the oven and rub the top with butter while it's still very hot.  Take it out of the pan and let the bread cool until it's warm to the touch before slicing and serving.  Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Honey Quick Bread

We generally bake yeast bread a few times a week and usually use some version of  "no knead" bread first developed by Jim Lahey and made famous by Mark Bittman of the The New York Times.  That recipe requires the dough to sit over night, so it takes some advanced planning.  Forgot to do that last night, and here we were Sunday morning without any bread for brunch.  I dug around in my recipe collection and found this Whole Wheat Honey Quick Bread, which I cut at some point from a newspaper--who knows how long ago.

This bread is amazing!  It is almost like a yeast bread (though doesn't have the yeast flavor or smell).  The texture is light yet the crumb is also sturdy.  It's delicious right out of the oven and also good toasted, too.  The secret is the magic that happens when buttermilk (or sour milk) and soda combine.  You can see the dough rising almost as soon as you combine the liquid and dry ingredients.  It takes about 45-55 minutes to bake, so it's not as quick as biscuits or muffins, but this is a great alternative to yeast bread.  If you like this bread, also check out Honey Oat Quick Bread, posted last year.

WHOLE WHEAT HONEY QUICK BREAD

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 2/3 cups buttermilk (or plain yogurt or 1 1/2 cups
         milk and two tablespoons white vinegar)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl, thoroughly mix buttermilk, honey and egg until well combined.  Pour liquid ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and, using a rubber spatula, quickly fold ingredients together until just combined (do not over mix).  Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, turning mid-way to ensure bread bakes evenly. Bread is done when it's firm and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.    Cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Honey Whole-Wheat Challah

We obviously aren't following a gluten free diet here at SteffesWood Apiary!  I've been on a bread baking kick and have been having some great luck with challah.  This whole wheat challah recipe produced a lightly sweetened loaf with a soft crumb that is also great toasted.  It makes a gorgeous loaf, too!

1 cup water
1/4 cup honey (I used amber summer honey, but fall honey would be delicious here)
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 packet (.25 ounce) rapid-rise yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg, plus one egg yolk
1 teaspoon (or so) sesame seeds

Heat water, honey and butter in a small pan over low flame until the water is warm enough to melt the butter.  You don't want the water to be boiling hot, but it should be hot to the touch.  Stir to melt butter and dissolve honey.  In a separate bowl, combine 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook (or large bowl).  While mixer runs on low speed, pour hot water/honey/butter mixture into bowl.  Beat the whole egg with a fork and pour it into the bowl, too, and mix until the liquid begins to combine with the flour. Stop mixer, scrape down sides of the bowl and turn mixer onto medium speed.  Knead dough about 5 minutes, adding up to 1/2 cup more each of whole wheat and all purpose flours if needed, until dough is soft, smooth and elastic.  If you're doing this by hand, it may take about 8 minutes of kneading.

Three risings:
Place dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and/or a kitchen towel and set in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour).  Fold dough in on itself a few times, turn it over so smooth side is up, cover and let rise again until doubled in size.  Fold dough in on itself again and roll into a long rope, tapered at the ends, about 18 inches long and 3 inches thick.  Roll the rope into a tight curl, pinching the dough on the bottom to hold the curl together (see photo). Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Cover again and let rise for about 1 more hour.

 Preheat oven to 350.  When dough has risen (in loaf form) for the third time, beat an egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water and gently brush over entire loaf.  Sprinkle with about 1-2 teaspoons of sesame seeds (try to have a light covering over entire loaf).  Bake in center of the oven for about 45-55 minutes, until the loaf is a rich, brown (almost the color of a soft pretzel).  Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  This recipe makes one loaf.