Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Honey Raisin Bread


 
While I love baking breads with at least some whole grain flour in them, I’m also happy to make a richer, fluffier, sweeter loaf on occasion. This one, which is also studded with dark raisins, is made with all bread flour, and is nearly as indulgently satisfying as dessert.

I always feel a bit irresponsible when writing about a kneaded yeast bread recipe on these pages. Not because of the carbohydrate loaded nature of the final product. (It has never been my goal to be nutritionally elite.) It’s because of the somewhat careless way I put together a loaf of bread. Success in baking is usually accomplished by applied accuracy. Recipes for really great fancy baked goods have measurements that consider tiny increments like grams and milliliters. My bread recipes tend to use language like, “3 cups bread flour, or more as needed,” or brief descriptions of what the dough should be like when it’s time to stop kneading or adding flour.

 
This recipe is no exception. I started with a cup of warm milk. I wanted to sweeten and enrich the bread, so added ¼ cup of each honey and soft, unsalted butter. I knew this would hold about 3 cups of bread flour, so that’s what I kneaded in. It was about right. The dough came together in my stand mixer, smooth and elastic, slightly tacky. Perhaps more or less flour would be needed if I used a different brand. Perhaps kneading by hand instead of with a stand mixer and a dough hook would change the results. Really, I’m happy to keep the recipe somewhat flexible so that bread can be made the way the bread maker likes to make it.

 
This dough could probably take in some other flavors, such as cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. You could also use a different dried fruit, such as craisins, or chopped dates, figs, or apricots, or a mixture of any of those. Nuts could be mixed in, too. I liked the sweetness of this recipe, though you may be able to back off the honey, or replace it with another sweetener, with some minor adjustments to the flour content. You could probably put some whole grain flour in as well.

The butter keeps the bread soft as well as rich, making it a lovely breakfast or afternoon snack. It also makes pretty fabulous French toast. Bread pudding would be great, too. This is a good one to have in your recipe file for tinkering. Or just eating plain, lightly toasted and gently buttered.


Honey Raisin Bread
If you do not want to use a stand mixer to mix and knead the bread, you can mix it in a large bowl and knead by hand on a floured surface.

1 cup milk
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup honey
2 ¼ teaspoon (1 envelope) active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour, or more as needed, divided
1 teaspoon fine salt
¾ cup raisins

1. Combine the milk and butter and heat until the milk is about 100 F. The butter does not need to be completely melted. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Stir in the honey and yeast. Let stand about 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy.

3. Add about 1 ½ cups flour and mix with the paddle attachment to make a batter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand for 15-30 minutes. The mixture should be risen and puffy in appearance.

4. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Add about half of the remaining flour. Knead on medium-low speed using the dough hook. Continue adding the remaining flour and kneading it in to make a smooth and elastic dough that is still slightly tacky. This will take about 10 minutes of kneading time.

5. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead in the raisins by hand to distribute them evenly.

6. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, or grease it as desired. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in the prepared bowl. Spray or grease the dough ball. Cover the dough loosely with a sheet of plastic wrap. Cover the bowl with a towel. Let stand for about 1 hour, or until roughly doubled in size.

7. Gently deflate the dough and reshape it into a ball. Let stand 5 minutes. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Shape the dough into a log and place it on the baking sheet. Cover loosely with a towel.

8. Let the shaped dough rise for about 1 hour or until roughly doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350 F.

9. Slash the dough in several places with a sharp blade. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool completely.

Makes about 12 servings.


Sunday, November 4, 2018

17 November Favorites


 
With the commercial popularity of Halloween and Christmas, November can start to feel like a flyover month, a space for cleaning up one set of decorations and pile of candy wrappers and planning the next one. I refuse to fly over Thanksgiving, or any of the delicious, comforting foods that I’ve featured on these pages in this final month of fall. Pumpkin, cranberries and apples are headliners in my favorite November posts, of course, and there are other delicious baked goods and late season vegetables that contribute to the comforting table.

Here is a list of 17 favorites posted in this month from The Messy Apron Archives:

Pumpkin gets swirled into every meal at this time of year. Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal is a wholesome and comforting breakfast dish,

 
and Pumpkin Waffles take a bit more time, but make great weekend brunches.

 
Quick breads and coffee cakes are always welcome at the breakfast table, as well as part of a complete afternoon snack. There’s Cranberry Apple Oatmeal Coffee Cake.
 


And for a pumpkin quick bread fix, I’ve posted three different pumpkin muffins in Novembers past: Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins, Pumpkin Molasses Muffins, and Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins.


Some of my November favorites are yeast breads, like Pumpkin Focaccia with Walnuts and Swiss


 



Other dishes with late-season ingredients: Spicy Spaghetti Squash Stir Fry






And Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce, which is great with cheese tortellini or ravioli.



For a warm-up in the colder weather there’s Mulled Apple Cider.



Of course, the big show of November is Thanksgiving. Cranberry Sauce is a must, and I rely on this simple recipe, which can be varied in so many ways.



Pumpkin pie has to be there as well, so I have posted both Grandmama’s Pumpkin Pie, which is classic and comforting



and Bourbon Vanilla Pumpkin Pie, a warm and fragrant twist on tradition.



If you don’t go for pumpkin in your Thanksgiving dessert, however, you could make Pear Apple Crumble Pie.



After celebrating Thanksgiving, there’s still some November left, so you might as well start getting ready for Christmas. Chai Spice Cashew Butter Cookies are a great way to get in the holiday baking spirit.



There are so many good things to make in November, so don’t get so caught up anticipating upcoming chaos that you miss out.




Friday, November 2, 2018

Friday Night



This has been one of those weeks when I inexplicably fall asleep by about 8:00pm watching Rifftrax just about every night. That sleep seems to have been effective sleep, however, since it’s Friday night and I don’t even feel half-dead. Hooray! Of course, the shameful pile of spent candy wrappers, remnants of a dive into Halloween leftovers, may tell a story of a sugar-fueled evening instead.


Reading…

**Escapism required! I’m desperate for a release from the dark reality of these pre-midterm election days. This evening, I started on The Call of Earth, the second book in the Homecoming series by Orson Scott Card. This series was published in the 1990s but I never read it. The first book, The Memory of Earth was quite enjoyable.

If I can’t get satisfactorily immersed, I may try A Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engle (no, I’ve never read that, either), or Terminal Alliance, my newest acquisition by a favorite author, Jim C. Hines.

**Comfort also required. In addition to escapism, comfort would be good, too, so I’m feeling like I should just read some favorites, like The Wizard of Oz or something by Jane Austen or Ursula K. LeGuin.


The Day Job…

**Halloween cosplay. We are welcome to wear costumes at work on Halloween, so one of the people I supervise put a small amount of effort into dressing up as yours truly. Since I am a middle-aged, rather white woman of European descent, it was strange to see myself cosplayed by a bearded African American man half my age. You just know you’ve become a certain kind of special person in the universe when something like this happens to you. I’ve decided to hold to the idea that imitation is the highest form of flattery.


Cooking…

**Prep ahead = success. I was pretty resourceful, for once, in using up the wheat berries and chickpeas I cooked toward the end of last week. I made two dishes starring both of them: a savory pilaf and a composed grain bowl. Each was delicious, but I actually took some notes about the grain bowl, which started with sautéed and seasoned wheat berries flavored intensely with some roasted cherry tomatoes I had in the freezer. I roasted the chickpeas with some olive oil and smoked paprika and put them on the top of the wheat berries along with some garnishes of diced red onions, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I loved it!

**This weekend’s prep; next week’s ideas. I hope to roast up a good bit of the home-grown butternut squash I have left and use it in some good suppers. First up will be Roasted Squash Soup with Black Bean Salsa. I haven’t made Winter Squash and Leek Empanadas with Sage for years, but I hope I have time to make them soon, too. Not only are they a good used of squash that I can cook ahead, but they’re also great to have in the freezer for quick week night meals.



**Internet recipe fantasies. This link loaded with delicious pies.


This fun concept.

And this sheet pan mac & cheese with pumpkin with it's mesmerizing how-to video. Guaranteed to destroy my weight loss fantasies!


**Coming soon. A new recipe for a sweet raisin bread.



A new month has begun once again! A post of links to favorites from the month of November should be up in a few days.


I hope this has been a good week for you. I have the weekend off from The Day Job– plus an extra hour with the end of Daylight Savings Time! – and hopefully I will be able to use it wisely.

Speaking of wisdom: be sure to vote on Tuesday, November 6!