Tuesdays with Dorie February Wrap-Up

This week everyone is baking the Chocolate Truffle Tartlets recipe from Baking with Julia.  I'm going to pass on this project (with its eight (8!) egg yolks).  For Valentine's Day I made a flourless chocolate cake, which satiated our chocolate cravings for a while.  However, I am looking forward to making Rugelach on March 6.

Tuesdays with Dorie Project 1: White Bread from "Baking with Julia" by Dorie Greenspan.

Today's project is White Loaves from Baking with Julia by Dori Greenspan.  Here we go!

I've owned Baking with Julia for a number of years. It's been a long time, however, since I've made the recipe for basic white loaves. I'm going to read it over, and then assemble the ingredients and equipment.

The recipe calls for unsalted butter at room temperature. I keep butter in the freezer until it's needed, so that must be taken out right away.

Next is flour.  This recipe calls for a lot of it.  But measuring flour is a pain! It's much easier to weigh the flour. The King Arthur folks say that a cup of flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces.

I'll weigh the water, too.  So simple.

So I have now gathered everything together.  Flour, water, butter, salt, yeast, and sugar.  Let's mix it up!

Water is poured into a large mixing bowl.  Sugar and yeast are then added.  The yeast is allowed to ferment in the bowl for a few minutes. When it is foamy, more water and half of the flour are added to the bowl and combined.

The rest of the flour is gradually added.  Next, the salt is added.  Then the dough is kneaded for several minutes.

Finally, the butter is added to the dough.  More mixing occurs until: Ta-da! The dough is pulled together.

But wait.  There's more.

The dough goes into a oiled bowl which is then covered with plastic wrap.  After an hour the dough has doubled in bulk, as is shown in the picture below.

I deflate the dough, turn it out onto a cutting board, and divide it in half using my big knife.  Working with one section at a time, I shape the dough into a rectangle, fold it like a letter, seal the edge, and put it into a prepared bread pan.

To keep dough from sticking to the cutting board or my hands, I use water.  I rub a little water on the surface of the cutting board and keep a bowl of water nearby to dip my hands into while working with the dough.

The dough rises for a second time in the bread pans.  Meanwhile, the oven is heating.

After the second rise, the dough bakes for about an hour, until it reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees.  I absolutely do check the bread's temperature with a food thermometer before declaring it finished.  And there we have it, the finished loaves.

One loaf is perfectly shaped.  The second is a little lumpy because I made into cinnamon swirl bread and things got a little wild when rolling it up.  Below is an interior shot of the cinnamon bread.  This will make excellent toast.

Fun and easy to make.  Delicious to eat.  

Tuesdays with Dorie

I've signed up to be part of the 2012 Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) baking extravaganza! This year Laurie and Jules are working from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.  Although I've owned this book for years and have made some of the recipes, there are many more I look forward to trying.  This should be fun; I know it will be delicious.

The first 2012 TWD post goes up on Tuesday, February 7.  Check back then.

Making Rice in the Slow Cooker

A New Year's Resolution is to (try) and eat vegetarian at breakfast and lunch.  This includes eating whole grain bread and rice rather than white rice or items made with white flour.  Today I made a blend of wild and whole grain brown rice in the slow cooker while doing other things around the house - it was so easy.

To begin, I sprayed the inside of the slow cooker with non-stick spray.  Then I combined one cup of the rice with two cups of water and a 1/4 tsp. salt in the crock pot.  I turned the cooker on high and let the rice cook for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.   Super simple.  I'll definitely do this again.

Cookbook Shopping

Originally published at SomethingGoodtoRead.com

Remember Michael Pollan's advice?  "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants."

If you, or someone on your holiday shopping list, are working on point three, or plan to in the New Year, here is an interesting list of vegan cookbooks from vegan.com.  I would add to this list my favorites, Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Gift brainstorm:  A cookbook andproduce bags to keep veggies fresh.  A nice combination.

Photo:  ChicoBag Hemp-Cotton Produce Bags for keeping leafy greens fresh.