Thanks to all of you who gave us a little feedback yesterday on the Kitchen Cure. If you haven't already, please hop over and take the quick survey and give us any comments on where you're currently at in the Cure. It's great to see so many of you already done with your cleaning and restocking, but we also understand it's a busy time of year.
Here's your weekend Cure assignment. If you're still cleaning and restocking, just keep working at it! You have a free weekend to bring some clean spring sunshine into your cupboards.
But sometimes a quick bout of bread-baking also helps us get back into the kitchen and re-energized for cooking fresh. Bread baking is so simple, so easy, and such a sweet payoff for so little work. We're going to challenge any of you with an hour or two of extra time this weekend to make bread. Recipes for quick and yeast breads below, including the famous No-Knead Bread. Haven't made it yet? This is your chance!
Our apologies to those of you keeping a kosher kitchen for Passover this week - this is obviously an activity to skip. But for those of you who are done with your kitchen cleaning, re-organizing, and basic re-stocking, this is a great next step in the Kitchen Cure.
Heat up your oven before it gets too hot outside, and make a loaf of bread. Here are links to some of our favorite bread recipes. If you really don't have time to make a yeast bread, there are some quick breads too - although we really think that you should throw together a batch of No-Knead dough tonight, go out for a night on the town, then tomorrow sleep in and slap that bread in the oven for a leisurely Saturday lunch or dinner. What could be simpler?
Oh, and if you don't have a Dutch oven, don't worry - do you have a covered pot? See our post on Dutch oven alternatives for No-Knead Bread.
Yeast Breads
• No-Knead Bread in a Hurry
• Been working on a sourdough starter? Try this sourdough loaf.
• No-Knead Challah
• No-Time Bread - If you want to put bread together for dinner tonight, this is the recipe.
• Mom's Rosemary Focaccia
Quick Breads
• Hunk o' Fruit: Bill Granger's Oat, Pear, and Raspberry Loaf
• Laughing Cinnamon Bread
And don't forget to photograph your bread adventures for the Flickr pool and tell us all about it here or on your own blog. Warm, deliciously stretchy fresh bread is a weekend delight, and we would be remiss if we left it out of this Spring Cure.
All The Info
• Kitchn Cure: Week Five! Bread Baking Assignment
• Kitchn Cure: Week Five! Taking Stock and Reporting Back
• Kitchen Cure: Week Four! Fire Up the Stove
• Kitchn Cure: Week Three! Use What Your Mama Gave You
• Kitchn Cure: Week Two! Going Deeper - Goodbye Processed Foods!
• Kitchn Cure: Week One! Getting Started and De-Cluttering Your Food
• All Kitchn Spring Cure 2008 Posts
• The Kitchn Cure Flickr Pool Page
(Image: Faith Hopler)
I think I'm going to try a foccacia.
I said I THINK I'm going to try a foccacia. Bread baking intimidates me, mostly because of the time factor. But it's supposed to rain on Sunday, and I think my toddler would enjoy painting olive oil onto a foccacia, so it can be a play project as well as a cooking job.
And I'd love to be able to whip up some quick baguettes.
OK, now push down the dread and try it!
view cmcinnyc's profile
Go for it! That focaccia is pretty foolproof, I must say...
view faith's profile
MATZO FTW!
view citizenkoz's profile
Anyone have another good bread recipe that's not focaccia? I want to actually try kneading.
view squiggle's profile
Any suggestions for something those of us keeping a kosher l'pesach kitchen might do?
view Ether Maiden's profile
There are all sorts of interesting recipes in this blog:
http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/
view RebeccaCT's profile
well, i was going to make the soup tonight for dinner, but now i think i'll wait until tomorrow so i can bake some bread to go with it!!! yummy!!! i want it now...
http://threadtrace.wordpress.com/
view cassiopia's profile
Instead of a traditional bread, I'm going to make thick-crust pizza dough (the recipe is from America's Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook). It involves yeast and kneading, so I think it counts. :)
view Nougat's profile
I love you guys, but bread baking for the week of Passover?
view abbyroad's profile
Yes, it's bad timing, but we wanted to fit it into the Cure. I wanted to make homemade matzo this week and blog it but wasn't able to.
So, for those of you observing Passover, here's a matzo recipe instead!
Matzo Recipe For Passover - Pesach
I'd be really interested to see how this turns out, if someone tries it!
view faith's profile
Thanks, Faith, for urging people to bake their own bread! There's really nothing that compares to homemade bread (both the taste and the satisfaction), and with the skyrocketing prices of flour and wheat (and all manner of bread products) these days, there's never been a better time to start baking your own.
Rebecca,
Thanks so much for the shout out for our bread baking site, AYearInBread.com. Things have been a little quiet over there lately, but we have lots of delicious plans on the rise for our second year, including all sorts of new bread recipes.
Squiggle & cmcinnyc,
I love the Parisian Daily Baguettes from Daniel Leader's wonderful new book, Local Breads. It's a great recipe for beginners, and you go from first step to first bite in under four hours:
http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/2007/06/susan-summer-breads-parisian-daily.html
As for me, I made a new version of rosemary focaccia last night and am now torn between trying yet another version today or making Emma's sourdough pan loaf - which I've been drooling over since Thursday. I have a feeling it's gonna win out. Then tomorrow I plan to bake 3 loaves of sandwich bread as a bribe for a starving friend who is coming over to the farm on Monday to help me work the sheep. ; )
Three cheers for homemade bread!
view Farmgirl Susan's profile
I've got my no-knead dough rising right now! It was so simple to throw together, and I'm looking forward to baking it tomorrow morning. My first attempt at bread, although I've been making my own pizza dough recently (my first EVER attempt at yeast!), and it's been going so well that I don't think we'll ever go back to buying pre-made dough or crusts. It's just too easy!
Will update everyone on how it goes, and I barely remembered to snap a shot, but will get some more and post to flickr tomorrow.
Great weekend assignment, thanks!
view STLcolleen's profile
Okay, question about the sourdough starter:
Mine's on its 4th day and I don't see a lot of action. It certainly hasn't doubled, as mentioned in the post. Also, there are clearly 2 layers going on: an opaque doughy layer, covered with a clear liquid.
I've followed the directions in the post, without any commercial yeast to start.
How can I know if what I have is okay? In other words, when do I know it's time to start over?
I'll put a pic on the flickr cure page. My username there is rzta.
Thanks to anyone with any tips.
view renata's profile
I just reread the starter post and saw that my questions are answered in it. Sorry for that.
view renata's profile
Um just a word to the wise - I have made that matzoh recipe before and it's easy and great - but it is NOT kosher for Passover, as the paragraph preceeding the recipe explains. Just sayin.
view robinm's profile
My foccaccia is on its first rising, toddler (and husband) are sacked out sleeping. So far so good. Mixing and kneading the dough was quick and easy (I have kneaded dough before, with my mom when I was a kid, so I'm not a complete novice I guess). It's just finessing the timing, which looks like it's going to work out today! I'm very excited!
view cmcinnyc's profile
I did it! I finally made the no-knead bread and it turned out pretty darn good for my first-ever bread baking endeavour. I'll post some photos to flickr tonight. We brought it over to my parents house for dinner last night and my Dad, who's a bit of a bread-snob, couldn't stop complimenting me on the crust. I have a lot more confidence now, and I can't wait to try making another loaf! Then it's onward to sourdough!
view STLcolleen's profile
Hurray! Congratulations, STLcolleen!
My mom just made no-knead. She is a long-time bread baker, but this was her first time with this kind of recipe and she kept calling with questions. I was like, no, really - you can't screw it up!
How did the focaccia turn out, cmcinnyc?
view faith's profile
The focaccia was excellent. I had no idea it was that easy! I'm excited to try some more varieties. The big challenge will be finding a 4 hour time slot when I know I'll be around for the various steps.
view cmcinnyc's profile
I've been on a bread baking craze lately. Although I have taken the week off for passover. But I made some really good rye bread and pita right before Pesach.
view s and the r's profile
I made baked my sourdough last night and oh my goodness it's delicious!
I'm out of space on my flickr acct for the month (and haven't upgraded yet) so my pics are at http://proprietywithatwist.blogspot.com
view ashleym (aka autzve on flickr)'s profile