Amanda's Savory Herb Bread

I recently received this lovely bunch of herbs from a beautiful kindergarten student of mine! She is now a grown woman, but no less delightful than when she was five! Since this cool spring weather makes me want to turn on the oven, the parsley, dill and rosemary from this bunch will find their way into bread. Thanks, Amanda!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon yeast in ¼ cup warm water with a tablespoon sugar in a glass bowl

2 cups water

5 -6 cups flour

1 ¼ cup ground cashew meal (almond meal would be a good substitute, if needed)

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ cup flax meal

1/3 cup olive oil

2 eggs

Chopped fresh herbs

Directions:

Assemble your yeast mix and set in a warm oven for about 15 minutes.

1. Warm means you should be able to touch any part of the oven without burning yourself. If the oven is too hot, bye-bye yeast spores:)

2. When the yeast has bubbled, add everything else you want to use except the flour and the herbs.

3. Begin adding the flour, 2 cups at a time. When you have mixed in 4 or 5 cups start adding a little more slowly. When you have dough that you can turn out onto a pastry cloth or floured surface, you are ready to knead. It’s OK if it’s a little sticky, you can add more flour while you knead. After you have kneaded for a few minutes, sprinkle the herbs on the surface and knead them into the bread. Keep kneading until the herbs are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

4. When you have kneaded enough to have a smooth, round ball of dough, rub a small amount of olive oil or melted butter on the surface of the dough, and place it in a sizable glass bowl and cover with a light cloth. Place in a warm oven. It will take from 1 – 2 hours for the dough to double in size. 

5. When it is double in size, turn it out on the floured surface and knead it until it is nearly back to the original size.  You can make the loaves into any size or shape you like. You could make four long baguette shapes and put 2 each on cookie sheets. You can make two round loaves and bake them on pizza stones. Or you can use loaf pans.  The bread is going to double in size, so keep that in mind.

6. Cover the shapes with a light cloth and return to the warm oven for the final rising. This will take from 1 – 2 hours.

7. When the dough has doubled, gently remove the pans from the warm oven and set them on the counter while you preheat the oven to 350.

8. Bake the loaves 1 at a time on the middle rack for 20 minutes. When the 20 minutes are up, tap the loaves with a knife to see if you hear a hollow sound. That sound is good indicator the bread is baked through. A thud would mean a couple more minutes. 

9. When the bread is done, wait as long as you can stand it, then cut and spread with a generous amount of butter. About 20 minutes is a good rule of thumb for when it is ready to cut. Before that, it is a little too soft.

Be careful of how you talk to yourself because you may be listening.

Lisa M Hayes

Garlic and Dried Kale Bread

It seems that everyone is trying to think of ways to eat kale because it’s a dark green, vitamin and mineral rich food that is both inexpensive to buy and easy to grow. Kale chips* are easy to make and they are also available commercially.  For this tasty bread, use about an ounce of chips (a cereal bowl full), and gently crush them so that the pieces are small flakes.

Shown: Toasted with mint garlic cream cheese

Ingredients:
1 rounded tablespoon yeast in ¼ cup warm water with a tablespoon sugar in a glass bowl

2 cups water 6 cups flour – I use the white whole wheat by Red Mill. This is sometimes called whole wheat pastry flour.

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ cup flax meal

1/3 olive oil

4 – 6 cloves garlic mashed in a garlic press; discard the parts that won’t go through the press

¼ cup honey

2 eggs

1 ounce crushed kale chips - add these last so they won’t get too pulverized in the mixing.

Directions:

Assemble your yeast mix and set in a warm oven for about 15 minutes.

1. Warm means you should be able to touch any part of the oven without burning yourself. If the oven is too hot, bye-bye yeast spores!

2. Add the other ingredients that you want to use – except the flour.

3. When the yeast has bubbled, begin adding the flour - 2 cups at a time. When you have mixed in 4 or 5 cups, start adding the flour a little more slowly. When you have dough that you can turn out onto a pastry cloth or floured surface, you are ready to knead. It’s OK if it’s a little sticky, you can add more flour while you knead.

4. When you have kneaded enough to have a smooth, round ball of dough, rub a small amount of olive oil or melted butter on the surface of the dough, and place it in a sizable glass bowl and cover with a light cloth. Place in a warm oven. It will take from 1 – 2 hours for the dough to double in size.

5. When it is double in size, turn it out on the floured surface and knead it until it is nearly back to the original size. Since we used this bread for sandwiches, we made buns. Divide the dough into 16 – 20 roughly equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, and then set it on a greased cookie sheet and press it so that it flattens a bit. If your cookie sheets are on the small side, you may need to use three pans. The buns should have a little space between them. They will double in size.

6. (If you do not want to make the whole batch at once, you can put half of the dough in the freezer at this point, and bake it later. You will want to shape it into either a loaf or buns before you freeze it.)

7. Cover the shapes with a light cloth and return to the warm oven for the final rising. This will take from 1 – 2 hours.

8. When the dough has doubled, gently remove the pans from the warm oven and set them on the counter while you preheat the oven to 350.

9. Bake the loaves 1 at a time on the middle rack for 20 minutes. When the 20 minutes are up, tap the loaves with a knife to see if you hear a hollow sound. That sound is good indicator the bread is baked through. A dull thud would mean a couple more minutes.

10. When the bread is done, wait as long as you can stand it, then cut and spread with a generous amount of butter. About 20 minutes is a good rule of thumb for when it is ready to cut. Before that, it is a little too soft.

11. We made vegetarian sandwiches with this bread; the filling consisted of baked sweet potato slices, avocado and all the regular sandwich trimmings: lettuce, tomato, mustard and mayo. They were a tasty treat; perfect for your meatless Mondays! But if you like hamburgers, these would make them extra good.

* To make kale chips: strip the kale from the large center stalk, tear into hand size pieces, and place on parchment paper covered cookie sheets. Drizzle just a tiny bit of olive oil over the kale (an olive oil spritzer works well if you have one), sprinkle with salt, pepper, chili powder or any other spice you would like to try. Bake in a 300 degree oven until the leaves are crisp. This usually takes about 20 - 30 minutes. If you cannot use them or eat them all right away, you can put them in an air tight container in the freezer. Otherwise they will get soggy and stale quickly.

If compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

Siddhartha Gautama