No Knead Bread: Bread Mix in a Jar

December 26, 2016February 25, 2018 Sarah

While I love my bread machine (and seriously, it makes life so much easier), having a few tricks for quick bread, that doesn’t need a machine is a must. I have a basic no-knead bread recipe I have used for quite some time. And as a bonus? It fits into a quart mason jar, so you can prep a number of batches ahead of time.

Awhile back, Kirk had picked up one of the Ball Pour & Measure Cap sets, and I finally got around to using it.

It makes an interesting cap to a mason jar. For this maybe not the best use, however if it was a mason jar of rice, it would be great.

You can bake this bread up various ways, two ways I have used are parchment paper lined cast iron, which helps produce a tidy loaf. It is my favorite method.

That and it is simple to pop out after baking.

The other method is directly baking it in the cast iron skillet. I found the dough spread a lot more. My dough was having a temperamental day, and I should have worked in a bit more flour.

While it was equally delicious in taste, it left it with the appearance of a soda bread, rather than yeast bread. I also had to chisel it out a bit from the pan. Personally, the parchment paper method is a lot better.

No-Knead Bread

Ingredients:

4½ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp quick rising dry yeast
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ cups warm water

Directions:

If prepping in advance, pack the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a quart mason jar, seal tightly. You will need to use a canning funnel, tapping the jar as you add in the flour, and most likely tamping it with a wooden spoon handle.

In a large mixing bowl add in dry ingredients. Add vinegar and warm water. Stir until combined. A dough whisk helps pull it together quickly.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap, let rise for 1½ hours.

Punch dough down and form into a ball. Place on sheet of parchment paper, and if using, place into a cast iron skillet with paper. Let rest and rise for 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450° for at least 10 minutes. Bake bread for 30 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden and it smells done (you can also check with a digital thermometer for being above 190°) Take out and let rest for a few, then transfer bread to a cooling rack. Store tightly wrapped once cooled.

Notes:

You can bake the bread on a baking sheet or shape it fit a bread pan.

Humidity and brand of flour can affect how much water you need. The dough once mixed should resemble a traditional bread dough, where it is minimally sticky, and holds shape. You may need to adjust the amount of water, a little less or more. The worst is you add in a bit more flour if needed.

If you do bake directly in cast iron, be sure to lightly oil the skillet beforehand.

Homesteading · Recipes · Urban Homesteading

Herb Focaccia Bread

December 19, 2016 Sarah

Even with cold weather, and freezes, I find in the PNW that my hardier herbs are still usable in winter. Rosemary is great, even when it’s frozen. This a great recipe for soup nights.

Herb Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (115-120ºF)
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp fine sea salt
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
 ½ tsp ground black pepper

Topping:

 ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
 ½ tsp ground black pepper
 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
 ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Mix the warm water, sugar and yeast and let the yeast bubble for a couple of minutes. Add the yeast mixture to a stand mixer bowl along with the salt, olive oil, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour, beat on low. Add the rest of the flour and the herbs and pepper and beat on low until just mixed.
Knock the dough off the mixing blade and put in the dough hook, let beat for 5-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Divide dough in half and let rest for 5 minutes loosely covered with plastic wrap.

Heat the oven to 400ºF. Prepare two 9-inch glass pie plates by oiling with a little olive oil. Pat each dough half into the prepared plate, easing the dough out to the sides. Let rest for 5 minutes and then dot with fork tines all over. Brush each half with half the olive oil. Mix the black pepper, rosemary and Parmesan and sprinkle half over each pan.
Let rise for 15 minutes, covered loosely with plastic wrap.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut in wedges.

Makes 2 9″ rounds.

Homesteading · Prepping · Recipes · Urban Homesteading

Grinding Wheatberries and Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

December 16, 2016February 25, 2018 Sarah

Awhile back Kirk bought us a Victorio grain mill. Manual? Sure. And whisper quiet….unlike doing it my Vitamix blender’s dry container…where you need hearing protection. And you get a light upper arm workout. It only took 5-10 minutes to grind up enough flour for 2 loaves bread (and that was being interrupted constantly by 2 small children who wanted to “help”).

What I like most is I don’t have to freeze the wheat berries like I did before, when I used our Vitamix dry container (it heats up the wheat too fast if you don’t). We buy large bags of wheat from Bob’s Red Mill directly, and store them in sealed containers.

A short clip of it in action:

A few years back Kirk replaced my nearly worn out Breadman bread machine with a Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme machine. While it takes longer to produce a loaf of bread with it than a standard machine (think 3 hours 45 minutes and up), the bread is 2 pounds (many machines don’t go that big) and it produces a normal shaped loaf, with a gorgeous crust (it has 2 paddles as well, for kneading). Most often, I make the go-to recipe on the side of the machine, but with all-purpose flour, instead of bread flour. It turns out perfect with little effort on my part. I drop in the ingredients, hit start and walk away till a shy 4 hours has passed, as the houses smells amazing.

Wheat Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups water
2 Tbsp olive or sunflower oil
3½ cups bread flour
1½ cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp dry milk
1½ tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:

Following the standard directions for a Zojirushi bread machine, add the water, oil, then the flours, sugar, dry milk, and salt. Make a small divot, add the yeast in it.

Set for a standard loaf of wheat bread.

If you have a large enough bread machine (2 pound capacity), just follow the method for adding ingredients that it calls for. Zoji’s warm the ingredients for you (this is why a cycle takes longer), so with other machines you would need to use warm water instead, and stack the ingredients as above.

Once baked, remove from machine, let cool fully on a rack.

Makes 2 pound loaf.

For best results, once bread is fully cool, store in a large bread bag or 2 gallon zip top bag, and use within 1½ days. For long-term storage, once cooled, slice as desired and double bag, and freeze. Take out slices as desired, let thaw on the counter in a covered container.

Homesteading · Recipes · Urban Homesteading

Garlic and Rosemary Loaves

December 14, 2016 Sarah

Garlic & Rosemary Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour + more for dusting
2 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
1½ cups warm water
1 Tbsp raw honey (or agave nectar for vegan)
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1½ tsp fine sea salt
7 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200°, turn off.

In a large oven safe mixing bowl, whisk water and honey together, sprinkle yeast over. Set in warm oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk flour and vital wheat gluten together, set aside.

In a small bowl, stir oil, salt, garlic and rosemary together, add to yeast mixture, whisking in. Add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, stirring in thoroughly.

Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, return to warmed oven, let rise for 2 hours.

Lightly flour a rimmed baking sheet, flour your hands and divide dough into two halves (work gently to avoid deflating it too much. Drop dough on baking sheet, into two balls, sprinkle a little more flour on top. Cover gently with plastic wrap (draped across) and let rise for an hour.

Preheat oven to 450°, cut a shallow slit across the top of each loaf, bake on top rack for 30 to 40 minutes, until deeply golden and loaves sound hollow when tapped. Use a thin spatula to run under the leaves, transfer to a cooling rack.

The loaves, once cooled, can be wrapped in plastic wrap, and sealed in gallon freezer bags, and frozen for later use. Defrost wrapped, on the counter to enjoy.

Makes 2 loaves.

Homesteading · Prepping · Recipes · Urban Homesteading

Daily Bread Making With A Zojirushi Bread Machine

December 7, 2016December 13, 2020 Sarah1 Comment

Is it possible to do daily bread making? In a modern life? It is if you have a few tools and techniques on hand.

A few years back Kirk surprised me with a Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Home Bakery Supreme 2-Pound-Loaf Breadmaker (there’s a mouthful!) to replace my worn out old bread machine. Since then, daily bread has become so easy to make. Mostly because the bread looks like a normal loaf. The machine has a long pan, with 2 dough paddles inside. Most machines have one paddle, and are square-ish in shape, and bake up tall. This means you can actually make sandwich bread!

This machine has allowed me to make nearly daily bread (3 boys go through a lot!), and without a lot of time invested. The biggest key is prepping it ahead of time, as seen above. I measure out the ingredients and put the flour in a quart mason jar (use a funnel), and any leftover flour (a quart holds about 4 cups all-purpose flour) goes into a second jar, along with any salt, dry milk, sugar, or other dry ingredients. You can prep out weeks of this mind you! *Update: I now gently rap the jar to settle the dry ingredients, and use a spoon to help push the flour down, and can fit it all into the quart mason jar.

Then, when ready to bake, I add in the water called for, any oil or butter, the dry goods, and then measure out my yeast. It takes less than 5 minutes to get a loaf going.

My favorite recipe:

White Sandwich Loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups water
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, or olive oil
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp fine sea salt
4¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp dry milk
2 tsp yeast

Directions:

Add ingredients in order listed. Set loaf for white bread.

Once fully cooled, store in a sealed bread bag, and use within 2 days for best results. This slices well for freezing. We take out slices at night, put in a sandwich box, and let thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Makes one 2 pound loaf.