Bread

Babka is a rich, yeasted cross between bread and coffee cake with an equally rich Russian and Polish culinary heritage. The name is derived from the Russian baba, which means grandmother, an appropriate name for this wonderful comfort food. While it is mostly known as a popular Jewish bread filled with some combination of chocolate, cinnamon, almonds, even poppy seeds and sometimes topped with streusel, it can also be filled with raisins or soaked with rum, as in baba au rhum. The dough is rich enough that it can also be used for brioche and kugelhopf. In American bakeries, babka is most often formed as a twisted loaf with veins of the sweet filling running throughout, baked either in a loaf pan or freestanding. However, the Israeli version, known as kranz cake, uses a dramatic shaping technique that many of my recipe testers found appealing. This recipe is my favorite version, with both cinnamon and chocolate in the filling. Of course, you can leave out the chocolate and make a cinnamon sugar version, or leave out the cinnamon and make just a chocolate version, but I say, why leave out either? It’s easier to grind the chocolate chips or chunks if they’re frozen. After you grind them, you can add the cinnamon and butter and continue to process them all together. The streusel topping is also optional, but I highly recommend using it on the freestanding versions.

Because the cheese may bubble and run out of this bread while in the oven, I advise baking the loaves on a parchment-lined sheet pan rather than directly on a baking stone. Any cheese that does run out onto the pan will be like a crispy little cheese snack, so it won’t go to waste.

You can use any kind of beer in this recipe, as both light and dark brews add subtle flavors that will complement the cheese.

Although store-bought English muffins may look easy to make, they’re tricky to do at home, especially if you want to get the spongelike nooks and crannies that trap butter and jam and are the key to their popularity. This version is a cross between a crumpet and a roll. On the inside, it’s soft and custardy with lots of pockets, but the outside is chewy and nicely caramelized. I took inspiration from a recipe I saw on the wonderful e-group The Bread-Baker’s List (you can sign up at www.bread-bakers.com). That recipe was sent in by Werner Gansz, who clearly spent a lot of time thinking it through. Although this formula is different from his, I thank him for getting me excited about English muffins all over again, and for his inventive method, from which I’ve borrowed many ideas. Thanks also to recipe tester Lucille Johnston, who made it her personal mission to perfect this recipe. You’ll need crumpet rings or something similar to make these, as the dough is thin and batterlike (it later sets up into a soft, sticky dough), so it must be confined by a form. The rings are readily available at cookware stores, but you can also use the rims of quart-size canning jars. They’re shorter than crumpet rings but still work quite well. You’ll need to plan ahead in order to follow the process correctly. If you have a flat griddle pan or electric griddle, this is the ideal time to use it, as making these muffins is similar to making pancakes. You can also use a large cast-iron or steel skillet. Other items you’ll also need on hand are a metal spatula, and a 1/3-cup measure for portioning and pouring the dough. Finally, you will need cornmeal to give the tops and bottoms of the English muffins an authentic look.

After struan, wild rice and onion bread was the most popular bread at Brother Juniper’s Bakery, and a version of this recipe appears in my first book, Brother Juniper’s Bread Book. The recipe calls for wild rice, but it can also be made with brown rice or a combination of wild and brown rice, or any other cooked grain. At Brother Juniper’s, during the holiday season we even added parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, and black pepper, which made for a wonderful bread for stuffing turkey. Note that it only takes about 1/4 cup of uncooked wild rice to make 1 cup (6 oz, by weight) of cooked wild rice; still, if you’re going to cook wild rice especially for this recipe, you might as well make a bigger batch and freeze 1-cup packets for future use—or have it with dinner! This new version uses the overnight fermentation method. The yeast is added directly to the bowl, not rehydrated with the warm water and buttermilk. You can use either dried or fresh onions, and you can form the loaves into any size or shape. Dried onions are about one-tenth the weight of fresh onions and will absorb water from the dough, while fresh onions will leach moisture back into the dough. If you use dried onions, don’t rehydrate them before adding them to the dough, but do be aware that you may have to add an extra 2 to 4 tablespoons (1 to 2 oz) of water while mixing.

There are many ways to make rye bread, and every bread lover has a favorite version. But when push comes to shove, the style that sells the most is soft sandwich rye. This version includes the optional use of cocoa powder, which darkens the bread in the style of pumpernickel. Other optional ingredients, whether caraway, minced dried onion, or nigella seeds (also known as black onion seeds), transform this recipe into various regional favorites. Adding orange oil or extract and anise seeds, for example, turns it into a Swedish-style limpa rye bread. You can use various types of rye flour in this recipe. The version most commonly sold is the “white flour” version of rye, with the bran and germ sifted out. But if you look around, you should be able to find stone-ground, whole grain, or dark rye flour, as well as pumpernickel flour. You could even use rye chops or rye meal, which are more coarsely ground, resembling cracked wheat or steel-cut oats. The trade-off is that whole rye flour is more healthful, while light rye yields a softer, lighter loaf. The choice is yours. The molasses is an important flavor component in this bread, but feel free to reduce the amount or replace it with sorghum syrup or golden sugar syrup. Just don’t use blackstrap molasses, which is too strong; look for a product labeled “old-fashioned,” “fancy,” or “unsulfured.”

This type of dough is often referred to as milk dough, since the primary enrichment is milk, whether whole, skim, buttermilk, or powdered. It also contains a fair amount of sweetener and some form of fat or oil. All of these enrichments serve to keep the bread soft and slightly sweet. Because of the many enrichments, the dough has a larger percentage of yeast than lean dough, so it’s especially important to put it into the refrigerator right after it’s mixed to avoid overfermentation. If you use honey or agave nectar instead of sugar, increase the amount of flour by 3 1/2 to 7 tablespoons (1 to 2 oz / 28.5 to 56.5 g). This dough makes wonderful sandwich bread and can also be used to make many different types of rolls, including hamburger and hot dog buns. See the variations on page 106 for a variety of possibilities.

I get emails all the time asking for Philadelphia-style hoagie and cheesesteak rolls. There is something about the cultural connection we Philly folk have with these iconic sandwiches that makes many people believe that Philadelphia’s Amoroso’s Baking Company is the only place to find a good hoagie roll, which is, of course, not true. The key to this type of roll is a nice balance of texture and flavor, somewhere between lean dough and soft enriched dough, with just enough “chew” to stand up to the fillings without making it overly hard to eat the darn thing. The overnight fermentation method is ideal for this because it brings out maximum flavor with very little hands-on time. The optional barley malt syrup provides a nice undertone of flavor that’s difficult to identify and also helps with crust color. This dough also makes great Kaiser rolls.

I enjoy seeds in bread. They add all sorts of valuable nutrients, and they just taste so good. This bread is similar to a classic German Mehrkorn bread, loaded with seeds and just a touch of whole wheat flour (though you can certainly use more whole wheat if you like). I love to make sandwiches with it, especially peanut butter and jelly, to toast it, or to simply eat it by the slice. Take my word for it, it tastes really good. Only the sunflower and pumpkin seeds need to be toasted; the sesame and flaxseeds can go in without toasting. Natural sesame seeds, which are light brown because they still have their hulls, are much more appealing in this bread than white sesame seeds, which have had the hulls polished off. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can use other combinations of seeds. Try adding lightly toasted chopped walnuts or pecans. Because the dough will stiffen overnight in the refrigerator as the seeds slowly absorb moisture, it’s important to have a very soft, supple dough—even a tad sticky—before you put it away for the night.

This dough is distinctive because of its generous use of eggs, which give it a beautiful golden color. This type of dough is most familiar as challah, in a braided form as the table bread for the Jewish Sabbath meal. But enriched egg breads have been made by bakers of many cultures for centuries, and they aren’t always braided. If you like the flavor and texture of this bread, feel free to use it to make any number of other baked goods, from dinner rolls to sweet cinnamon buns, and even yeasted coffee cake and sweet or savory swirl breads, like babka or cheese rolls. You can use either an egg white or a whole egg in the egg wash. The whole egg will create a darker crust.

Every book I write has yet another variation of this soft, enriched multigrain loaf, my all-time favorite bread. The name comes from western Scotland, probably the town called Struanmoor, on the Isle of Skye, and also from a Gaelic clan name that means “a convergence of streams.” It was originally conceived of as a once-a-year harvest bread, incorporating whatever grains and seeds were available from the previous day’s harvest. Because the notion of a harvest bread offers a great deal of formula flexibility, I’m always looking for ways to push the struan envelope in search of better or easier versions. This recipe is very similar to the version I originally made at my bakery, Brother Juniper’s, and it was by far the most popular bread we made. This time around, I’ve taken advantage of the overnight, cold fermentation method to come up with a recipe that’s more flexible, particularly in regard to time options. This is the ultimate toasting bread. There’s something about the combination of ingredients that creates the perfect balance of flavor and texture when toasted and spread with butter, jam, or both. It also works beautifully as a sandwich bread with fillings like tuna salad, chicken salad, or egg salad. You can reduce the amount of sugar or honey if you prefer, but I like the sweetness of this bread and think the combination of brown sugar and honey enhances the toasting qualities. Still, sweetness is a very personal matter, so follow your heart and your palate.

As with other sourdough recipes in this book, you have two options with this recipe. For a “purist” version, omit the instant yeast from the final dough. For a mixed method, which will rise more quickly but lack some of the sour flavor, include the instant yeast. The optional oil helps lubricate and soften the bran fiber in whole grain bread. For a variety of other options in making this bread, see page 83, where you’ll find multigrain suggestions, guidelines for making transitional breads with less than 100 percent whole grains, and more.

No bread is as good for us as one made completely from whole grains. The challenge with 100 percent whole grain breads, though, is achieving an open crumb and airy texture. The bran fiber in the whole grain flour, while extremely beneficial in our diet, acts like little razors in the dough, cutting the thin gluten strands. This makes it difficult for the loaf to rise as high as white flour loaves. The antidote is to use a higher percentage of hydration, which counteracts some of the stiffness caused by the bran, softening the fiber and promoting additional oven spring. The dough will seem very soft when it is first mixed but will gradually firm up as it ferments, as the fiber slowly swells as it absorbs the water. As more and more of us make the switch to whole grains, this bread will become a valuable addition to your repertoire. For a variety of options in making this bread, see page 83, where you’ll find multigrain suggestions, guidelines for making transitional breads with less than 100 percent whole grains, and more.

This bread can be used for anything that you’d make with white bread, including buns, rolls, and toast. You can use either traditional “red” whole wheat flour or the new “white” whole wheat that is lighter in color and slightly less bitter. If you choose the honey or agave nectar option in this recipe, you’ll need more flour than if you use sugar, probably an extra 3 1/2 to 7 tablespoons (1 to 2 oz). Assess the texture as you mix and adjust accordingly.

I’ve developed two ways to make San Francisco–style sourdough bread using the overnight method. The “purist” method of making sourdough breads uses no commercial yeast and produces a flavor that’s tart, acidic, and complex. The mixed method uses instant yeast to produce a finished loaf more quickly; because of the reduced fermentation time, it yields less acidity and sourness. Both versions are excellent. To use the wild yeast starter, build and ripen your starter at least 1 day and not more than 3 days prior to making the final dough. Of course, if you don’t live in San Francisco, this won’t be true San Francisco sourdough bread because it won’t contain a large concentration of the microorganisms associated with the Bay Area, especially the famous Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis (these organisms do exist in sourdoughs everywhere, but not to the same extent as they do in and around San Francisco). However, this style of sourdough, made with all unbleached white bread flour, has become so closely associated with San Francisco that I call it San Francisco sourdough to distinguish it from the French pain au levain, which contains a small amount of whole grain flour. That said, any number of pain au levain variations can be made by simply substituting whole grain or other flours for some of the white flour.

Pain au levain, which is the French term for naturally leavened bread, is generally considered to be the gold standard for wild yeast breads, though opinions do vary widely—and are strongly held. People from San Francisco, Portland, New York, Boston, anywhere in Germany (where it is called Sauerteig), and many other cities and regions may dispute the superiority of the French version. In fact, there isn’t one single version of pain au levain; it’s really a category of bread, usually consisting primarily of white flour, supplemented with a small amount of whole wheat flour, rye flour, or a multigrain flour. To complicate matters further, some “authentic” French levains are made with all-natural starter, while others use a combination of starter and commercial yeast (usually just a small amount). In this book, I use the term pain au levain to indicate breads that are naturally leavened, either with or without the addition of commercial yeast, using anywhere from 5 to 20 percent whole grain flour. In the process of developing the formulas for Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, I discovered a method of mixing natural starters with commercial yeast that seems to work especially well for home baking and small batches. By increasing the amount of starter and commercial yeast in the final dough, it’s possible to make breads with all of the flavor development of the great levains, but with a shortened proofing stage at the end. As with most of the breads in this book, the cold, overnight fermentation method also extends the life of the dough to at least 3 days, with flavors that are even more developed on the third day than on the first. Although this unconventional recipe is unlike anything you’ll find in other books, it follows and fulfills the flavor rule (that is, flavor rules!). As with the San Francisco sourdough (page 64), you can make this bread leavened only with natural starter (the “purist” method), or you can add instant yeast to the final dough (the mixed method). If you want to use the “purist” method and bake the bread on the same day as you mix the dough, don’t refrigerate the final dough; just let it rest at room temperature for about 4 hours, or until it doubles in size. Then, shape and proof it at room temperature for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, and bake as described below.

Although this formula is exactly the same as the preceeding pain à l’ancienne rustic bread recipe (page 52), the method is quite different. This focaccia dough is also quite similar to the pizza doughs in this book, the main difference being the amount of hydration. Focaccia is wetter, at 80 percent hydration, because it has the benefit of rising and baking in a pan to provide structural support, whereas pizza dough is closer to 70 percent hydration so that it can be handled and stretched. In both cases, the dough should be slightly sticky, not just tacky. Focaccia dough is so wet that it’s best to use olive oil to handle it, whereas flour works just fine with pizza dough. You can also bake a smaller, round focaccia (pictured on page 198).

I first introduced the concept of cold-fermented wet dough in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. While the idea isn’t new or original, it has blossomed during the past few years into various no-knead, overnight-rise permutations. I now prefer the version in this recipe because it gives the best flavor and also provides the most flexibility for scheduling. The refrigerator provides a 4-day window of baking opportunity, and that’s hard to beat. The beauty of this dough, as others have discovered, is that it can be used in so many ways: for focaccia, ciabatta, mini baguettes, and more. (Because the method for shaping this dough into focaccia is substantially different, it appears as a separate recipe on page 57.) And even though it’s the most hydrated dough in this book, it requires only minimal mixing to achieve the same gluten strength as bakeries obtain by mixing continuously for 20 minutes, due to the stretch and fold technique.

Because the methods in this book balance time, temperature, and ingredients, you don’t need an array of pre-ferments to accomplish full development of the flavor and texture of the bread. Time does most of the work through slow, cold overnight fermentation. This formula differs from similar approaches in other recent books by using less yeast, giving the bread better flavor and caramelization, or coloring, of the crust. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, but after about 4 days the quality starts to decline. If you want to make a full-size batch and save some of the unbaked dough for longer than a week, place the dough in one or more lightly oiled freezer bags after the initial overnight fermentation, seal tightly, and freeze. To thaw, place the bag of dough in the refrigerator the day before you need it so that it can thaw slowly, without overfermenting. This dough also makes excellent pizza crust (see pages 67 to 73 for other variations and page 24 for shaping instructions).

This version of French bread is the simplest formula in the book. It uses the cold fermentation technique, and the resulting dough actually holds the shape and cuts of conventional French baguettes, bâtards, and boules better than the lean dough (page 46), which is wetter. Because the dough isn’t as wet, it’s especially important to handle it with a firm but light touch. Too much pressure will squeeze out the gas trapped during the overnight rise, resulting in small, even holes rather than the prized large, irregular holes. I’ve also included a variation that makes spectacular loaves with a distinctive blistered crust.