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Preparation: Havarti Bread

At the request of my dear cousin, I'll be making a cheese bread this week. Checking out the cheese selection at my local Schnucks, I picked up what appears to be a traditional havarti cheese. I haven't tasted this particular cheese before and I'm unfamiliar with havarti in general... so I am expecting an adventure! Additionally, this marks my first attempt at a bread with cheese... so here's hoping I make good choices (however uninformed they may be).

The plan:

• 1.5 cups of water
• 1 large tsp of salt
• 1 Tbs olive oil

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 4+? cups bread flour (however much it takes to get the dough to form into a ball and pull away from the sides of the mixer bowl - I don't keep track)
• 2 tsp yeast
  

I'll combine the ingredients in the typical bread fashion, allowing it to sit and rise for about an hour after mixing. I plan on shaping the bread into two or three loaves and working the cheese in during this step. As I work the bread, I'll stretch it out into a long rectangle, sprinkle about 1/4 cup of cheese on it, and then tri-fold. After doing that two or three times, I'll let the bread sit to rise for another hour.

I think the bread will cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes... but I may decide to change this up a bit (I always feel like I'm guessing... anyone have good rules for this?). About 5 minutes before I expect the bread to be done, I'll sprinkle more cheese on top of the loaves.

Sounds good to me! As a bonus, I can serve the rest of the havarti along with some apple slices as an appetizer while waiting for the bread.

Postmortem: Cinnamon Rolls

Last Breadnesday's cinnamon rolls were a big success! Blogging about has proven to be a bit trickier... But here I go!

Although everyone enjoyed them and they disappeared quickly, there is always room for improvement.

The finished rolls were easy to eat, but still had a bit of chew to them. I think they could've benefited from additional rising time. I warned in advance that I was likely to rush the rising in order to finish at a reasonable time and I think the dough would be softer and fall apart in your mouth. Where I used 90 minutes on the initial rise and 45 minutes on the second rise - that could be expanded to the full 2 hours initially and 1 hour (or more) on the second.

The dough was very easy to work with and rolled up nicely. The cinnamon sugar I put inside melted in the oven and a significant amount dripped out the bottom. I'm not sure if this is something i can avoid, but the finished rolls could have used more cinnamon inside and more sugar wouldn't have been a bad thing. In general, a more cinnamon-heavy mix would've been good. I mixed my cinnamon sugar back in December, so I don't remember my proportions at all - unfortunately that makes it tricky to improve it next time.

The icing I made was exactly what was recommended in The Bread Baker's Apprentice - but it was a very simple powdered sugar and milk recipe and I think was the least liked part of this week's bread. I think a cream cheese icing would have a slightly more complex flavor and be tastier than just eating sugar.

Time for some pictures!

Preparation: Cinnamon Rolls

To help celebrate the end of the school year, I've been requested to make cinnamon rolls. To be honest, Julie has been requesting them for weeks but I've been holding off until I felt we had a proper excuse for a dessert bread.

My recipe is based on the sweet roll recipe found in Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'll take some liberties with it though, mostly in that I'm not going to go through all the rigor of precision measurement that he recommends and I'll probably rush the rise times slightly depending on how much time I have for baking tonight. Also, I'm going to substitute vanilla extract for where he uses lemon/orange extract. I may try citrus rolls some other time, but not tonight.

My procedure tonight should go something like this:

• Combine 1/2c of sugar, 1t salt, 9-10oz of whole milk or buttermilk, and 1/3c of shortening in mixer bowl and beat until creamy.
• Add an egg, 1t vanilla extract, and 2t yeast
• Add flour until dough balls up (maybe 3c?)
• Switch to a dough hook and continue to beat on medium for about 10 minutes. The dough should be tacky but not sticky.
• Ball up the dough and let it sit in an oiled bowl covered in plastic wrap until it has doubled in size.
• Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into a rectangle and cover one side with cinnamon sugar.
• Starting at one end, roll the dough back up into a spiral log and slice into traditional rolls placing the rolls on a baking sheet.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about 60 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• Bake the rolls for 20-30 minutes - until golden brown).
• Let cool for 10 minutes, cover with icing and serve.

And the icing will be a simple deal:

• Combine 4c of powdered sugar with 1t of vanilla extract and 6-8 tablespoons of milk. The goal is to dissolve all the sugar into the minimum amount of milk so the milk needs to be added slowly.

I can't wait to start! I'll take pictures and provide a postmortem with details tomorrow.

It all has to start somewhere...

Happy Breadnesday-eve!

Since early 2010, I've taken one day per week to make bread; often a Wednesday. Although I started because I personally find it comforting (and tasty), turns out it's also a great way to make new friends!

So far I am about a dozen breads into the practice, but they haven't been recorded particularly well. There are some pictures floating around my computer, but I don't really remember what I made on what date or how I would make that bread differently in the future. Now that I've turned Breadnesday into a full fledged habit, I think its time to document the process and open the doors to improving my bread. Hopefully, a side effect will be inspiring others to make homemade bread too!

Expect to start seeing posts about bread possibly as soon as tonight as I prepare for tomorrow's bread. I'm new at this blogging thing, so wish me luck!