Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Chip Dip Bread

The array of leftovers in my refrigerator can be mind-boggling. I'm not just talking about last night's roast or some stray vegetables. Those disappear without a whole lot of effort. But between recipe testing, product reviews, and "ooh! shiny!" spur-of-the-moment purchases, there are usually some odd things taking up shelf space.

The range of oddness goes from, "Honey, what that heck IS this?" to "It was great when company came, but there's no way we can finish this before it grows fur."

If the leftover item is more than we can finish as-is in a reasonable time, I run through my list of possibilities for re-purposing it. Can I incorporate it in a main dish? Can I work it into a side dish or dessert? Do I want it for breakfast for the next week? Is it good for the dog? Can I use it in bread?

Because, of course, given the right amount of motivation, I can find a way to incorporate pretty much anything into bread.

This time around, I had the remains of a garlicky dip. It was much like that popular French onion dip, but with a good dose of garlic. Given enough privacy and a spoon, and I could have finished it off without a problem, but putting it in a loaf of bread sounded like a better idea.

This should work just as well for any similar dip, whether it's home made or store-bought. If you don't happen to have leftover dip around, you could whip up a quarter-cup of a dip-like substance to use up the dregs of the sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese, buttermilk, and mayo containers, and then add in some herbs if you like.

You might need to adjust the flour or water in your dough if your dip is more or less wet than the one I used, but it shouldn't need a lot of adjusting if it's it's close to the thickness of a standard chip dip.

The resulting bread was soft and luxurious, with a wonderful crisp crust. Although the garlic smell coming from the oven was pretty strong, the bread itself was mildly flavored. I probably won't use it for peanut butter sandwiches, but it didn't clash with dinner at all.

Chip Dip Bread

1 cup lukewam water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour, divided
1/4 cup chip dip
1/2 teaspoon salt
Olive oil

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine water, sugar, yeast, and about 1/3 of the flour. Stir to combine, and set aside for 30 minutes. It will be bubbly.

Add half of the remaining flour, and knead with the dough hook until it is shiny and elastic, about 5 minutes.


Add the rest of the flour, the dip, and the salt. Knead with the dough hook until these ingredients are fully incorporated and the dough is elastic, about 3 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to cover it, and return it to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and sprinkle cornmeal on a baking sheet.

Lightly flour your work surface. When the dough has doubled, move it to your work surface and form into your preferred shape. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.


When it has risen, remove the plastic, slash as desired. 

Here it is, just placed in the oven at 350 degrees:


And here it is after 10 minutes in the oven. This guy had nice oven spring:


Bake at 350 degrees until browned and done, about 40 minutes.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.
Yum

1 comment:

Suzzanne said...

Very creative to use the leftover dip in bread. This looks delicious. Thanks for posting.

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