No-Knead, Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

As promised yesterday, here is my new favorite bread recipe. It was developed by King Arthur Flour, and it’s great because it takes about 5 minutes of hands-on time (more if you’re juggling a cranky 10 month-old while mixing ingredients, etc). This bread makes great toast, it makes a good sandwich and, of course, it’s great right out of the oven with a bowl of soup.

Since it’s a proprietary recipe, they recommend that you use their brand of flour to make it. I’ve been using Wheat Montana, and my favorite is their Prairie Gold (whole wheat) flour. My only other advice is to make sure it’s a pretty wet dough – if your flour is older, you might want to add some more water, or the bread will be really dense. It should be wetter than chocolate chip cookie dough, though not quite pourable.

It makes one loaf of bread, but you can double it if you want to give a loaf away 🙂  Or, it makes a couple of nice, small loaves, and the other day I baked a batch in my 7″ Dutch Oven so I could hollow it out into a bread bowl for crab dip.

Be sure to have some butter ready when you pull this out of the oven!

No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients

1. 1 cup lukewarm water

2. 1/4 cup orange juice

3. 1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil

4. 3 tablespoons molasses, maple syrup, dark corn syrup, or brown sugar corn syrup

5. 2 teaspoons instant yeast

6. 1/4 cup Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk

7. 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

8. 3 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour, white whole wheat preferred

Directions

1) Heavily grease an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. This loaf tends to stick, so be sure to grease the pan thoroughly with non-stick vegetable oil spray.

2) Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the mixture vigorously for about 3 minutes; an electric mixer set on high speed works well here. You should have a very sticky dough. It won’t be pourable, but neither will it be kneadable. Scoop it into the prepared pan.

3) Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes; it should just about rise to the rim of the pan, perhaps just barely cresting over the rim. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

4) Uncover the bread, and bake it for about 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it with aluminum foil after 20 minutes. The bread is done when it’s golden brown on top, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers between 190°F and 195°F. Remove it from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out onto a rack. Brush with melted butter, if desired; this will keep the crust soft. Cool the bread completely before cutting it. [HA! Go ahead and try 🙂 ]

#bread

Pioneer Woman’s Corn & Cheese Chowder

I’ve already shared with you Pioneer Woman’s Corn Chowder with Chilies, which is, as to be expected, delicious. PW excels in comfort food; and as with most comfort food, the more fat, the better. Her Corn & Cheese Chowder is no different. Not even remotely health food, but delicious and perfect for a crisp autumn day lunch with a friend.

I served it with my new go-to bread recipe, which I’ll share tomorrow. Because every soup chef needs to have a couple of easy bread recipes in her (or his) back pocket, right?

Corn & Cheese Chowder

Ingredients

1. 4 Tablespoons Butter

2. 1 whole Onion, Chopped

3. 3 slices Bacon, Cut Into Pieces

4. 3 whole Bell Peppers, Finely Diced (red, Yellow, Orange)

5. 5 ears Corn, Kernels Sliced Off [or about 4 cups frozen corn]

6. 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour

7. 3 cups Chicken Stock Or Broth

8. 2 cups Half-and-half

9. 1 cup (heaping) Grated Monterey Jack

10. 1 cup (heaping) Pepper Jack [I used about 1 1/2 cups of a shredded Mexican cheese mix instead of the Monterrey Jack and Pepper Jack]

11. 1/3 cup Sliced Green Onions

Preparation Instructions

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onions for a couple of minutes. Add bacon and cook for another minute or so, then add diced bell peppers and cook for a couple of minutes. Finally, add corn and cook for a minute.

Sprinkle flour evenly over the top and stir to combine. Pour in broth and stir well. Allow this to thicken for 3 or 4 minutes, then reduce heat to low. Stir in half-and-half, then cover and allow to simmer/thicken for 15 minutes or so.

Stir in cheeses and green onions. When cheese is melted and the soup is hot, check seasonings. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve immediately.

#bacon #corn #creambased #quickandeasy

African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter and Black Beans

This is a unique soup. The flavor combinations are very unexpected, but it’s the kind of surprise that, after I pondered it for a bit, I decided was a very good one. Especially if you happen to like peanut satay, which we both do, very much.

Poor Titus couldn’t weigh in on the whole combo because he’s not allowed to have peanuts yet.

This recipe comes straight from the Gluten-Free Goddess, except I used all black beans because I don’t like Black-Eyed Peas. I’ve tried ’em, and I don’t like ’em. If you happen to try this, let me know what you think!

African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter and Black Beans

1 tablespoon light olive oil or peanut oil

1 tablespoon red or green Thai Kitchen curry paste

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon [I used less cinnamon because I tend to prefer less cinnamony-flavors in my savory food]

1 medium red onion, peeled, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium sweet potato or yam, peeled, diced

1 large yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, diced

1 jalapeño or other hot chile pepper, seeded, diced fine

3 14-oz. cans black beans

1 quart light broth

1/2 cup 100% natural peanut butter melted in a half cup of boiled hot water (for one cup total)

1/2 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes, or more, to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Juice from 1 big juicy lime

2-3 teaspoons organic brown sugar or raw agave nectar, to taste

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

For garnish:

Chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

Heat the light olive oil in large soup pot. Add the curry paste and cinnamon; stir for a minute to infuse the oil with spice. Add the onion, garlic, sweet potato, yellow pepper and jalapeño. Stir and cook the veggies for 5-7 minutes, until softened.

Add the black-eyed peas, white and black beans, broth, melted peanut butter, red pepper flakes and cilantro.

Bring the soup to a high simmer, cover, and lower the heat; keep the soup on simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Stir in the lime juice and brown sugar or agave. Season with sea salt and ground pepper, to taste. Warm through and taste for seasoning adjustments.

Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/02/african-bean-sweet-potato-soup.html#ixzz1d8azoZ4u

#BlackBeans #PeanutButter #SweetPotato