The sweet and spice bread recipe
I dropped off a loaf of this at ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elisem site="livejournal.com">'s place this weekend, and it was devoured. Sonya has requested the recipe, and so I thought I'd post it here generally, so that everyone else could share it.
Now, first, it is useful to know that this is basically a variation of my bog-standard bread recipe. You can read all about that on my public blog over here, in much detail, including some practical stuff that I find helpful and you might too. (Or if you don't, at least you know why I mention it.)
The variant I did this weekend looks like this (for a batch that produced two mid-size spiral rolls suitable for ritual and potluck and one smaller round loaf for snacking upon or slicing for breakfast.) Equivalent to about 2 pound loafs.
Ingredients
- white flour
- yeast
- honey
- cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg (ground or able to be so by hand)
- salt
- butter (for this version, but it's optional) Olive oil might be okay, but carries a flavor of its own.
- orange extract (dried orange peel also works)
- vanilla extract (optional, but I like it.)
- demera or cane sugar (to coat the top with when baking)
Method
- Take some yeast (about 2 tablespoons in this case)
- Swirl in 2 cups of warm (but not hot) water along with several knife-fulls of honey. Let sit for 10 minutes in a warm kitchen until foamy. (Yay, live yeast.)
- Take 6 cups of flour (I used all white, because my white/whole wheat experiments have not been fantastic with the exception of pita bread.) Put in my large mixing bowl.
- Add another knifeful of honey. Maybe two, because it's a double batch.
- Add a pinch of salt (I use French sel gris: this is a recipe that really rewards excellent ingredients. Of course, I use sel gris for almost everything, so it's what I have in the house.)
- Add spices: I use equal parts caradmon, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I don't measure these, but it's probably about 2 teaspoons each, maybe a bit more. You should see specks of brown mixed with your flour even once everything's mixed.
- Melt some butter. This is strictly optional, but it will give a richer flavor to the bread, and make it softer and more resilient. I did a stick for the double batch, so there's about 1/3 of a stick in each loaf total, which is not as unreasonable as it might be. (I mean, I've made brioche, which is about that per loaf...)
- You can add the extracts now, or you can wait until the dough is coming together. If you are using orange peel, you can soak it in the yeast water if you like. Why the extracts? Orange + spice is a lovely flavor. Vanilla, in my opinion, adds a very slight deepening note to the flavor and enriches the whole thing, even though you probably won't actually notice it in the finished product unless you know it's there. I use about a tablespoon of each for a double batch, but looking for a slight color change in the dough can work too.
- Anyway, eventually, add your yeast water. Add your butter, too.
- Stir with a silicon spatula (my preference) or something else until it clumps, then knead the way you knead bread. (I prefer to do mine in a stainless steel mixing bowl, as it reduces mess, reduces getting flour everywhere, and is height adjustable to heights I want to knead at. I'm short, so I often sit on the floor instead of doing it at a counter.)
You may need to add a little extra water or flour depending on the state of your dough. (You want it to be basic bread dough: springy when well kneaded, but not sticking to the sides of the container.)
- Dump the dough on the counter for a moment when it's done, wash out the bowl, and oil it (I use a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and use the dough itself to mush it around to coat the bowl.) Cover with a damp dishcloth, or plastic wrap, or your baking sheet (anything that will keep it from drying out) and put it somewhere warm. This time of year, a sunny windowsill is nice, but the top of the stove out of the line of drafts is fine too.
- Let rise for 60 minutes or so until about 1.5 to 2 times the original size. Punch down. Let rise again.
- Shape into whatever shapes you like (round is nice. I am fond of spirals because they look gloriously fancy without being as much work as they look. Braids are nice but fussier.) Put on parchment paper or your silicon baking sheet or whatever. Turn on your oven to 350 or 375 degrees.
- While your oven is heating, the bread will continue to rise a bit. Right before you put it in the oven, sprinkle sugar (I prefer crushed demera, but what I had in the house at the moment was raw cane sugar, which was just fine. You do want something with crystals, because they make a satisfying crunchiness). I also sprinkle with cinnamon. It'll mostly stick on anyway, but if you really want to do a glaze (a little melted butter or egg white), that's just fine. (Or a spray of olive oil or butter spray will also work to give the cinnamon and sugar something to cling to.)
- Place in oven, bake until it sounds hollow on the bottom. (This is usually 30 minutes or so, give or take 10, depending on the size of your loaf. The spirals rise less in the middle, so are more like 25-30. Large round loaves might be 40.)
- Let cool. Get out of the way of people familiar with this bread, because there will probably be a swarm.
- It is particularly excellent with butter, peanut butter, Nutella, and jams and jellies involving dark berries (pomegranate, currant, blackberry, etc.) The next one on Elise's list to try is almond butter, which should work nicely too.
Variants
I have used maple syrup instead of honey in this: it has a stronger flavor, and it browns the bread noticeably more. (My maple syrup is from Marie's tree in her backyard: it's a silver maple rather than sugar maple, and is very flavorful. Again, this bread rewards good ingredients.)
I've also done rosewater instead of the vanilla - again, very delicate flavor shift, but rather lovely. The vanilla is vastly more popular, though.
Failure modes
- Your bread does not rise. You probably have dead yeast. If you did not use too-hot water, that means you probably need new ones.
- Your bread burned. Keep a better eye on it in future. (And if you're like me, you'll develop an internal timer where you'll go "Y'know, should peer at the bread" sometime around your 10th to 20th loaf.)
- Really, that's about it. If you can manage bread, you can manage this.
The spice and extract combo should translate to bread machine recipes, too, with whatever adjustments you normally make for bread machines. (and the extracts, while very nice, are not strictly necessary.)
elisem site="livejournal.com">'s place this weekend, and it was devoured. Sonya has requested the recipe, and so I thought I'd post it here generally, so that everyone else could share it. Now, first, it is useful to know that this is basically a variation of my bog-standard bread recipe. You can read all about that on my public blog over here, in much detail, including some practical stuff that I find helpful and you might too. (Or if you don't, at least you know why I mention it.)
The variant I did this weekend looks like this (for a batch that produced two mid-size spiral rolls suitable for ritual and potluck and one smaller round loaf for snacking upon or slicing for breakfast.) Equivalent to about 2 pound loafs.
Ingredients
- white flour
- yeast
- honey
- cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg (ground or able to be so by hand)
- salt
- butter (for this version, but it's optional) Olive oil might be okay, but carries a flavor of its own.
- orange extract (dried orange peel also works)
- vanilla extract (optional, but I like it.)
- demera or cane sugar (to coat the top with when baking)
Method
- Take some yeast (about 2 tablespoons in this case)
- Swirl in 2 cups of warm (but not hot) water along with several knife-fulls of honey. Let sit for 10 minutes in a warm kitchen until foamy. (Yay, live yeast.)
- Take 6 cups of flour (I used all white, because my white/whole wheat experiments have not been fantastic with the exception of pita bread.) Put in my large mixing bowl.
- Add another knifeful of honey. Maybe two, because it's a double batch.
- Add a pinch of salt (I use French sel gris: this is a recipe that really rewards excellent ingredients. Of course, I use sel gris for almost everything, so it's what I have in the house.)
- Add spices: I use equal parts caradmon, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I don't measure these, but it's probably about 2 teaspoons each, maybe a bit more. You should see specks of brown mixed with your flour even once everything's mixed.
- Melt some butter. This is strictly optional, but it will give a richer flavor to the bread, and make it softer and more resilient. I did a stick for the double batch, so there's about 1/3 of a stick in each loaf total, which is not as unreasonable as it might be. (I mean, I've made brioche, which is about that per loaf...)
- You can add the extracts now, or you can wait until the dough is coming together. If you are using orange peel, you can soak it in the yeast water if you like. Why the extracts? Orange + spice is a lovely flavor. Vanilla, in my opinion, adds a very slight deepening note to the flavor and enriches the whole thing, even though you probably won't actually notice it in the finished product unless you know it's there. I use about a tablespoon of each for a double batch, but looking for a slight color change in the dough can work too.
- Anyway, eventually, add your yeast water. Add your butter, too.
- Stir with a silicon spatula (my preference) or something else until it clumps, then knead the way you knead bread. (I prefer to do mine in a stainless steel mixing bowl, as it reduces mess, reduces getting flour everywhere, and is height adjustable to heights I want to knead at. I'm short, so I often sit on the floor instead of doing it at a counter.)
You may need to add a little extra water or flour depending on the state of your dough. (You want it to be basic bread dough: springy when well kneaded, but not sticking to the sides of the container.)
- Dump the dough on the counter for a moment when it's done, wash out the bowl, and oil it (I use a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and use the dough itself to mush it around to coat the bowl.) Cover with a damp dishcloth, or plastic wrap, or your baking sheet (anything that will keep it from drying out) and put it somewhere warm. This time of year, a sunny windowsill is nice, but the top of the stove out of the line of drafts is fine too.
- Let rise for 60 minutes or so until about 1.5 to 2 times the original size. Punch down. Let rise again.
- Shape into whatever shapes you like (round is nice. I am fond of spirals because they look gloriously fancy without being as much work as they look. Braids are nice but fussier.) Put on parchment paper or your silicon baking sheet or whatever. Turn on your oven to 350 or 375 degrees.
- While your oven is heating, the bread will continue to rise a bit. Right before you put it in the oven, sprinkle sugar (I prefer crushed demera, but what I had in the house at the moment was raw cane sugar, which was just fine. You do want something with crystals, because they make a satisfying crunchiness). I also sprinkle with cinnamon. It'll mostly stick on anyway, but if you really want to do a glaze (a little melted butter or egg white), that's just fine. (Or a spray of olive oil or butter spray will also work to give the cinnamon and sugar something to cling to.)
- Place in oven, bake until it sounds hollow on the bottom. (This is usually 30 minutes or so, give or take 10, depending on the size of your loaf. The spirals rise less in the middle, so are more like 25-30. Large round loaves might be 40.)
- Let cool. Get out of the way of people familiar with this bread, because there will probably be a swarm.
- It is particularly excellent with butter, peanut butter, Nutella, and jams and jellies involving dark berries (pomegranate, currant, blackberry, etc.) The next one on Elise's list to try is almond butter, which should work nicely too.
Variants
I have used maple syrup instead of honey in this: it has a stronger flavor, and it browns the bread noticeably more. (My maple syrup is from Marie's tree in her backyard: it's a silver maple rather than sugar maple, and is very flavorful. Again, this bread rewards good ingredients.)
I've also done rosewater instead of the vanilla - again, very delicate flavor shift, but rather lovely. The vanilla is vastly more popular, though.
Failure modes
- Your bread does not rise. You probably have dead yeast. If you did not use too-hot water, that means you probably need new ones.
- Your bread burned. Keep a better eye on it in future. (And if you're like me, you'll develop an internal timer where you'll go "Y'know, should peer at the bread" sometime around your 10th to 20th loaf.)
- Really, that's about it. If you can manage bread, you can manage this.
The spice and extract combo should translate to bread machine recipes, too, with whatever adjustments you normally make for bread machines. (and the extracts, while very nice, are not strictly necessary.)
no subject
Where in heaven's name are you buying it cheaply enough to do that? Out here it can cost a king's ransom!
no subject
She gave me what I think was half a one pound bag, and I've still got *tons* left. (it lives in a wide-mouth glass jar with a cork top, and I have half the jar left. It's very likely to last until *next* summer.
Now, bear in mind:
- I live by myself and cook proportionately to that.
- I usually don't make myself lunch (which is my main meal, and which I have at work.)
- I don't use a whole lot at once. A pinch on popcorn. A pinch in pasta. A large pinch in bread or in some of the cookies I've baked. Etc.
More seriously, I find it fairly reasonably priced (for the amounts I use it) at Penzey's, too, which is my preferred restocking place.
no subject
I tend to use it because of
And I second the question on the sel gris. Where on earth are you getting it that cheap? O_O I use kosher salt ... it's good enough for most things, but given that it's insalata caprese season, I may pick up some nice salt soon.
no subject
re: the sel gris: remember I live by myself, don't usually eat my main meal at home (since work feeds me) and therefore go through probably 3-5 pinches most weeks at the high end. (If I'm ever doing massive amounts of cooking involving salt, I'd pick up kosher. And I almost always have either fine or coase grain sea salt in the house for baths, too.) See above for where it comes from :)
no subject
On the flour count -- I don't know how you handle your grocery lists? My calendar actually has a tear-out grocery list section in it, so whenever I run out of something, I just stick it right on the list to purchase the following week.
If you order the flour, though, I don't have any good solutions. (: I need to make orders to Penzey's and so forth, and it's harder to remember to do that.
no subject
I mostly rotate between Trader Joe's and my local co-op. The co-op sometimes carries the white whole-wheat, but I've had times when I've gone in and they haven't had it.
And then I also go to Rainbow (one of our big chains) maybe once a month for stuff only they carry. (bottle of lemon juice, which I put a little in drinking water, for example. some kinds of frozen foods. Etc. etc.) But since I'm not there as often, it can be 3-6 weeks before I get there again.
no subject
I wish I could hit our farmers' market more often -- unfortunately, it's on Tuesday, and I'm usually playing hockey that day. /: I usually do my shopping Saturday morning.
no subject
no subject
(I think this is self-protective on my part, because it'd be very easy to *keep* ordering cool stuff from there...)
no subject
I am pleased at the smell (at least) of the orange + cardamom combination; I've never used cardamom before but I think I'll find lots of uses for it. Yum yum yum.
no subject
I am making another batch tomorrow to take to gaming on Monday, too. Yum.