Granola Bread

I know what you’ve been thinking all these months: What ever happened to The Messy Apron Cookshelf project? That challenge I gave myself to cook and bake more from my overflowing cook-bookcase. Forgot about it? Yeah, me too.

Really, I’ve begun to use my cookbooks more as reference material, and then I scavenge actual step-by-step recipes from magazine clippings and the internet. For some reason, a recipe always seems more new and exciting if it was just published, even if it’s pretty much the same thing as or a variation of a recipe that’s residing in a well-trusted cookbook. And so my cookshelf continues to be undeservedly neglected.

Recently, I found myself with a bowl of leftover homemade Granola that was threatening to go stale (I failed to stick it in the freezer when I traveled for Thanksgiving.) I decided to try the granola bread recipe from Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. The recipes in this book are quick to put together and time and the dough itself do most of the work.

This is quite a flavorful recipe with some whole wheat, cinnamon, honey and, of course, the granola. The dough is very wet and spreads into a fairly flat loaf when shaped into a boule, or round loaf, as I did. The baked bread is soft and chewy, with just a bit of crunch that I think would vary depending on the composition of the granola. The original recipe calls for it to be baked in a pan, but I liked the idea of a rustic round bread for breakfast.

At least I was planning to have this for breakfast after an overnight rising of the dough in the refrigerator. Nothing went wrong, really, except that I didn’t read the recipe far enough ahead, and didn’t realize that it needs more time between refrigerator and oven than the other recipes I tried from this book. It was still delicious and quite comforting when served slightly warm on a dreary and cold Saturday morning. It had to be brunch, but at least it was still before noon.

This is great served with a little butter, but I also loved it with my current favorite spread, which is cream cheese mixed with pumpkin butter. (My pumpkin butter is homemade from this recipe at smitten kitchen.) I think there are a lot of ways you could accompany this, and, since it’s a 1 ½ pound loaf, there’s probably plenty of bread to try more than one of them.

Overnight Granola Bread
Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The hands-on time for this recipe is very short, but the dough needs to rise for several hours in the refrigerator, and another hour and forty minutes at room temperature before baking.

1 cup warm water
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope-style package)
¼ cup honey
1 ½ teaspoons canola or other neutral-tasting oil
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup granola (I used this granola)

1. In a large container, mix together the water, yeast, honey, oil, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and granola, making sure all the flour is moistened.

2. Cover with a towel and let stand at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough rises and then collapses.

3. Keep covered with the towel and place in the refrigerator overnight or up to 5 days. If storing longer than 1 day, store it in a container with a lid. Cover with the lid, but do not completely seal it, allowing some place for air to circulate into the container.

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Work the dough into a rough ball (it will be quite wet and sticky) and place it on the lined baking sheet. Let stand for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 F. (Allow time for your oven to preheat while the loaf is rising.)

5. Cut a large X in the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes. The bread should be dark brown. Cool on a wire rack. Can be cut and served slightly warm. I like to cut a piece off the loaf and split it horizontally to spread it with butter or cream cheese mixed with pumpkin butter.

Makes a 1 ½ pound loaf.

Other recipes like this one: Stout Bread with Chocolate and Cherries, Multigrain Baguette, Sweet Pumpkin Focaccia

One year ago: Radish and Carrot Slaw with Zesty Citrus Dressing

Two years ago: Spinach Salad with Apples and Maple Walnut Vinaigrette

I May Just Be a Fraud

There is one thing that totally undermines my authenticity as a cook, a foodie, and someone who blogs about food. I've never been to France. If you read food-themed memoirs or the introductions to cookbooks (or even if you've just seen the movie Ratatouille) you know that the road to culinary and gastronomical credibility runs directly through Paris, France.

That's why I feel so faux writing about Pain au Chocolate. Not only have I never eaten it in Paris, but I can't recall that I'd ever eaten it anywhere before I made it myself last Friday. Maybe what I made wasn't real Pain au Chocolate after all. I could be a complete fraud. The memories of biting through a thin but crisp crust into rustic and soft but chewy bread and a pocket of warm, creamy dark chocolate, however, leave me with this thought: I don't care if it is authentic or not. What I made is delicious. It is delicious and comforting, simple yet decadent.

And, it was pretty easy, because I had a tool up my sleeve (or in my refrigerator) that allowed me to cheat: bread dough. I'm still making doughs from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. (I have a post on that here and an update in the comment section.) I used the basic rustic white bread dough, the recipe for which, you can find here, and a bar of Ghiradelli 65% cacao dark chocolate.

I'm not sure how much dough I used, but I happened to have just enough left to make eight rolls a little larger than hamburger buns. Lucky me! The chocolate bar was conveniently scored into eight squares. I broke the squares into chunks, then wrapped the dough around each broken square and formed it into a nice bun shape. I placed the buns on a pan lined with a silicone baking mat (you could just lightly grease the pan) and preheated the oven to 450 F. I baked most of the buns about 10 minutes, then removed and cooled them and wrapped them up and froze them for later enjoyment. The ones we were going to eat right away, I baked another 10 minutes (approximately...I was reading a mystery novel, and should have been paying more attention) until they were golden brown on the outside.

Now came the most difficult part of the wole process: waiting for them to be cool enough to eat!



Later, I baked off a couple of frozen partially-baked pain au chocolate, and they were just as good if not better. I simply put them on a pan while waiting for the oven to heat to 450 F, then baked them for 10-15 minutes. They were golden brown on the outside, and I could hear the chocolate bubbling inside.

I think you could use any bread dough you like to make these, but I have to say I really like using the dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. To tell the truth, if you don't have the time or inclination to make your own dough, you could probably make something with a refrigerated or frozen dough from the supermarket. (How about crescent roll dough from a can?) You could even buy a great loaf of bread, such as a good, crusty French loaf, cut it open, stuff a bar of chocolate inside and warm it up in the oven just enough to crisp the crust and melt the chocolate. A chocolate melt sandwich. What could be bad about that?

Of course, what do I know? I've never even been to France. I may just be a complete fraud!

A Carb-Carrying Member

I love bread. So, needless to say, I did not jump on the low-carb bandwagon that began touring the nation years ago. Americans, in a move that frankly baffled me, ditched ages-old foods like bread and noodles, declaring them suddenly unhealthy. Bakeries and pasta manufacturers went out of business while sales of no-carb pork rinds and cholesterol medications skyrocketed. Sure, lots of people lost weight and some even kept it off. Fine, whatever works for you works for you, but I’m going to keep my homemade bread. It’s made with real ingredients, no preservatives, and hardly any pork rinds.

Not too long ago, a bread-baking book got my attention. It’s called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and was written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (you can get it here or here). I was intrigued, but felt a little like this should be advertised by a shouty salesman, like Billy Mays or the Sham Wow guy. “Five minutes a day! You’ll never be hungry again! Just pay processing and handling!” I assumed the process would involve special equipment or delicate yeast starters and such things, but then, the book’s authors were guests on The Splendid Table, a radio show about food on NPR. Lynne Rossetto Kasper, the show’s charming hostess, tasted the bread right in front of the microphone, and I could hear her crunching the crust and mmmmming as she chewed. This might just be worth a try.

The whole thing got even better when I learned that The Splendid Table website had posted the basic recipe. I printed it out in early April, lost it at least three times, put “try Artisan Bread recipe” on several to-do lists, and finally, this weekend, when it was beginning to get disgustingly hot outside and it would practically be an act of self-immolation to turn on the oven, I got around to trying this bread. (Perhaps it’s not very “green” to run the oven and the air conditioner at the same time, but…all in the name of good bread.)

To make a short story that I’m making too long short again, I liked it. The recipe is super easy and the results tasted terrific. I followed the basic recipe, which you can get here, pretty much exactly. I used bread flour, but since the recipe just calls for “unbleached flour,” I think you could use all-purpose flour. Basically, you just mix up water, yeast, salt and flour and forget about it until you need it. (“And it’s just that easy!”) You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for a couple weeks and it supposedly develops in flavor over that time. All you do when you want to bake some bread is hack off a blob of dough, form it into a round loaf, let it sit, and bake it.

















The resulting bread is dense and chewy, and quite flavorful. I’ve been eating it alongside salads (of course), soup, and pasta. It’s also good thinly sliced, toasted and spread with jam or marmalade. You may want a softer sandwich loaf for something like a fluffer-nutter sandwich, but this bread is the kind of stuff you cut off a big chunk to use as an extra utensil with a rustic soup or pasta sauce.

The dough is wet, and did stick to my pizza peel when I used cornmeal between the dough and the peel. I had good results when using parchment paper instead. Also, I did need to bake the bread just a little longer than specified in the recipe. To check for doneness, I insert an instant-read thermometer into the bottom of the loaf. If the bread is about 200 F inside, I call it done. (You want the interior completely cooked, but don’t want all the moisture to steam away.)




I hope to try making other shapes, like baguettes and flatbreads with this dough (especially if I can use the grill…enough oven for a while!). I’ll try to keep you informed if the results are interesting. I may even actually buy the cookbook, and see what else the authors have to offer. It looks like this recipe, as easy and flavorful as it is, will help keep me a carb-carrying member of the breakfast, lunch and supper clubs for some time to come.