Blender-Enabled Muffins and the Harley Pasternak Blender

Sooooooo ...

I recently got the book Turbo Blender Desert Revolution and it says that you need a high-powered blender that can grind grains and heat foods. Shortly after I got the book, the folks at Salton asked if I wanted to test their Harley Pasternak Power Blender.

*taps fingertips together menacingly*

Why yes, yes I would ...

Bwaaa haaaa haaaa!

I already made one recipe from the book, but this time I decided that I would make a recipe that required grinding some grains. Which I happened to have. The book called for soft white wheat berries, and it just so happens that I bought those recently, too.

I messaged one of the authors of the book to ask whether he thought the Harley Pasternak blender would work for his book. He wasn't sure. The book requires blenders that spin so fast that they heat ingredients, and that are powerful enough to grind grains.

So ... did it work?

First, I put some water in the blender, started at low, and cranked the power up to top speed. And ... the water got warmer and warmer and warmer and then it was actually hot. It passed the first test.

But how about turning grains into flour? The first challenge is the ability to make flour. The second is the ability to grind evenly. You don't want to have some flour and some chunky bits. I put 2 1/4 cups of soft white wheat berries in the blender, set a timer for a minute and watched in complete fascination.

Not only did it turn wheat berries into flour, but it did it without needing me to stop and shake the blender or stop and scrape the sides. It was fun to watch, and kind of magical. Wowza.

So, yeah, obviously it can make your morning smoothie.

The controls on this are simple. The lever on the left is for on and off. The lever on the right is for pulsing. And the dial in the center is the speed control. There are no numbers or set speeds - it's just a smooth transition from the slowest to the fastest speed.

As far as the muffins, these were supposed to have a lemon glaze, which I'm sure would have been lovely. But I decided I wanted basic and somewhat savory muffins that could go with dinner. They have a bit of sugar, but they're not super-sweet. No sweeter than some cornbread muffins I've had.

Buttermilk Muffins
Adapted from Turbo Blender Desserts by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Download this photo as a coloring book page!

2 1/4 cups soft white wheat berries
5 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
3 large eggs at room temperature
5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Note: I ended up making 18 muffins instead of the 12 this recipe should have made. I probably could have filled the muffin cups a little more, but since I live at high altitude, I'm always skittish about things rising out of control. These kept their shape nicely, so I probably could have filled them more. It's also possible that other pans have deeper cups than the pans I used.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter at least 12 cups of a muffin pan. I used baking spray instead of butter, but use what you like.

Put the wheat berries in the blender container and blend at the highest speed until you have a fine flour. This should take about a minute.

Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cover and pulse a few times until the mixture is blended, then transfer the flour to a large bowl.

Add the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla to the blender. Cover and blend at low speed until it is smooth.

Pour the buttermilk mixture on top of the flour mixture and stir until smooth. Divide the batter to fill the muffin cups.

Bake at 400 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 12 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then turn the muffins out and let them cool completely.

I received the Harley Pasternak blender from Salton at no cost to me.

Yum

Coffee Coffeecake Cake

Lest you think I've gone mad, the title of this came about after I witnessed a long discussion of what you'd expect to get if you were offered "coffee cake."

A large number of people said, "Well, duh, it's a crumb cake. You eat it with coffee, like at breakfast." Or like the olden days on sitcoms when people just randomly stopped by for coffee.

Another segment of folks said they'd expect a coffee-flavoured cake, with walnuts, and a coffee-flavoured icing as well.

See what happened there? The folks who spell flavor as flavour have a coffee cake that uses the word coffee in the same way we would use chocolate if we were talking about chocolate cake.

The folks who spell flavour as flavor probably also verbally pronounce coffee cake as one run-on word. Coffeecake. Not coffee ... cake.

On the other hand, I grew up thinking that this was coffee cake. Ah yes, my mother was the master at confusing me. I grew up with Andy Griffin (Griffith) and I thought there was such a word as dopefeine that rhymed with caffeine (dope fiend).

So after this long online discussion about what was or wasn't coffee cake, I decided that I wanted to bake a cake. Some kind of cake. Perhaps coffee flavored. I started pawing through cookbooks, although really I should have just made this coffeecake and called it a day.

I started with older cookbooks and couldn't find either a coffee cake OR a crumb cake. Finally I found a recipe for what was called a coffee cake, but it was really a sweet yeasted bread and not a cake at all.

Harrumph. 

So, I cobbled together some notes and ideas and walnuts and coffee and went into the kitchen to grind some soft white wheat berries to make flour to make a cake. Because, well, why not?

This coffeecake is moist and a little crumbly at the same time. It's sweet, but the sweetness is offset a bit by the coffee. It's got crunchy bits from the caramelized sugar and little chewy nubs of walnut. This would be great with coffee. Or a glass of milk. Or maybe just with a fork, for dessert.

If you don't have a grain mill (I have a Mockmill) to grind your own wheat, then just use whatever flour you like and hope to heck that it works. Hah! But seriously, it ought to be just fine with either store-bought white wheat or with all purpose flour. If you use the darker whole wheat flour, you'll probably need just a little bit more moisture - a tablespoon or so should suffice.

Coffee Coffeecake Cake

For the topping:
1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat. Use what you have)
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Pinch of salt

For the cake:
3/4 cup sugar
6 3/4 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) white wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup half-and-half (or milk is fine)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted

To make the topping:
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix (fingertips work well) until the mixture looks like wet sand and comes together in clumps. Set aside until needed.

To make the cake:
Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with baking spray and heat the oven to 375 degrees. You can also line it with a reusable parchment, which is what I did. (I reviewed it here. You can buy it here.)

Combine the sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and stir or whisk to combine. You can use your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, if you like.

Combine the half-and-half, milk, egg, and vanilla extract in another container. (You can combine them all in the measuring cup. Start with the half-and-half, then add the coffee, then add the egg and vanilla.) Beat lightly with a fork to break up the egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.

Pour the mix into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Sprinkle the topping randomly over the batter.

Bake at 375 degrees until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and allowing it to complete cooling before serving. You can also leave the cake in the pan and serve from the pan.

Yum

Whole Wheat Sesame-Topped Loaf - with Freshly Milled Flour #Mockmill

I bake a lot. I've been wanting a grain mill for a while, to play around with. But I wasn't sure if I'd like it enough to justify buying one.

So when I got a chance to get a Mockmill to work with, I said "yes" in a heartbeat.

And, if you want one, I've got a deal for you. $80 off! Scroll to the bottom of the post for details!

The mill is named after its inventor, Wolfgang Mock, and it had pretty good reviews on bread sites that I trust, so I figured it was a good deal. Mockmill for me, bread for my readers.

Well, okay, the bread is for me, too. But the recipe is for my readers. Right?

The only thing left to do was buy some grains to mill. I picked up a couple of hard wheat varieties to start with - a hard white spring wheat and a hard white winter wheat. I'm going to try some soft wheat, too, and then I'll mess around with other grains.

The mill can grind grain very finely to make flour, or it can grind coarsely, for cracked grains or for things like cornmeal, where you want a coarse texture. Or any coarseness in between. You set the coarseness with a dial, so there's a complete range.

The photo shows the whole wheat flour on the right, topped with some store-bought bread flour.

The mill attaches to the hub of a KitchenAid mixer, so you do need a mixer to use the mill. But since it doesn't have its own motor, it's pretty small and lightweight and easier to store than a stand-alone mill.

Speaking of motors, I checked the heat on my KitchenAid's motor while I was grinding, and it didn't seem to be straining at all. I've made breads that stressed it more. So that's a really good thing.

The first time I used the mill, I had a bit of an "oops" moment. The mill jiggled quite a bit while it was grinding, and that grinding loosened the screw that keeps attachments attached to the mixer and then the mill did a nice spin around. Everything was fine except for some spilled grain, but I suggest that you don't go too far away from it while it's running.

I brought the Mockmill to a friend's house and it barely wobbled, so obviously it's a mixer issue and not a Mockmill issue, but the first time or two you use the mill, it's probably best to stay nearby and tighten the screw if it seems to be coming loose. Just to be safe.

Here it is, attached to my friend's mixer:

At my friend's house, we made pasta using half all-all purpose flour, and half freshly-ground whole wheat. It was really good with an eggplant bolognese. Here's the pasta:

Meanwhile, back to the mill ...

As far as cleaning the mill, you really don't need to do much - just brush out the parts you can get to, or if you're going to be putting it away for a while after grinding things like whole wheat that can go rancid, just run some white rice through it to clean it. You can also take the mill apart for a more thorough cleaning of the grinding stones, but that shouldn't be necessary very often - if you use it often. The mill comes with complete instructions on how to take it apart and put it back together, if you need to.

Way back when I first started researching about different flours, I found out that most flours that you buy are either aged or bleached. The natural aging process changes some chemical properties in the flour and strengthens the gluten bonds. Bleaching does the same thing, but in less time, which means the mills don't have to store the flour before they sell it.

Bakerpedia explained it well: "When flour is aged for several months, oxidation restructures the proteins within the flour while starch remains rather consistent. Here, the influence of gluten becomes more pronounced, forming stronger bonds which lead to a more elastic dough. Oxidation also naturally bleaches the flour, creating a lighter colored flour. Aging flour can be costly, which is why chemical methods of ‘aging’ are typical of large scale flour producers."

Aging time for flour also depends a bit on when the wheat was harvested. Grain that's newly harvested would need to be aged longer after grinding than grain that's older.

I also read (somewhere ... can't recall where) that you're best off baking with either aged flour or with freshly-milled flour. Flour that's somewhere in the middle of the process is least desirable. So, I figure it made sense to grind and then make bread right away because I'm not going to be storing flour for long periods of time before using it.

Here's a curious thing. After baking bazillions of loaves of bread, I know how much water I should need for how much flour. It varies a bit by season and brand of flour, but I know what results I should get. And I know that in general whole wheat flour needs more water than refined flour.

But the freshly-milled whole wheat flour didn't need any more flour than if I made this same recipe with white flour. Perhaps it's because the whole grains I bought had more moisture in them than milled flour would have had. I haven't experimented with enough types of whole wheat berries yet to know. But if you're using freshly milled grain, be prepared to make adjustments, if you need to.

Speaking of milling more grains, expect to see more recipes here using freshly milled grains. I've been really happy with the ones I've made so far, and I think it'll be a whole lot of fun working with other grains.

How much do I like this thing? Well, I just ordered some hard red wheat and some soft white wheat to try. I've used almost all of the first bag of the hard white wheat flour that I bought, so obviously I'm having some fun with it. If it was winter, I'd probably have used even more, but mid-summer it's kind of warm to be baking bread. Even so, I'm working on it!

If you happen to make this recipe with store-bought whole wheat flour, plan on using more water. I'm sure you'll need it.

Whole Wheat Sesame-Topped Loaf

9 ounces hard spring wheat berries, milled to a fine flour
4 1/2 ounce (1 cup) bread flour
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet) Red Star* Active Dry Yeast
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Egg wash (optional - for a shiny crust and so the sesame seeds adhere)
Toasted sesame seeds, as needed (optional)

After milling the flour (the Mockmill sends it directly into the stand mixer bowl, which is useful) add all of the other ingredients to the bowl.

Mix on slow speed using the dough hook until all the ingredients are mixed. It's fine if the butter is still in large lumps - the stand mixer will obliterate it during kneading.

Increase the speed to medium (I used 4 on my Artisan mixer) and knead for 10 minutes.

Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough has at least doubled - about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray for added insurance that the bread will leave the pan. This isn't required, but it's good insurance. I've had some breads stick to the bottom of some pans, and it never makes me happy.

When you see that the bread has risen, heat the oven to 350 degrees. This will give the oven enough time to heat fully before you put the bread in the oven.

Remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a log-like shape that will fit in the bread pan, with the seam side down in the pan.

Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap (you don't want to impede the rise) and set aside until the dough rises about an inch over the top of the pan - about 30 minutes, or about half of the first rising time. Remove the Brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash, if you're using it, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Slash the top of the loaf and bake at 350 degrees until the top is nicely browned and the loaf is fully baked, about 50 minutes. You can test the doneness with a thermometer poked into the bread, It should reach at least 205 degrees.

Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing or storing.

*If you use another brand of yeast, you might need to soften it in the water before mixing. Red Star is a brand that I know for sure can be mixed directly into the dough.

Trivia

I mentioned that Wolfgang Mock invented the Mockmill, but didn't say why. First, he tried whole grain bread that a friend made, and liked the flavor better than white flour. Second, he felt it was a much healthier choice. So, he started milling his own grains, but got tired of hand-cranking. He tried some electric mills, but didn't like them. So he decided to design his own, with an eye at making it easy to use and attractive.

Friends asked him to build mills for him, and it became a hobby that turned into a business in the 70's. Yup, he's been making these things for a long, long time. Mostly in Germany, but now he's working on selling them to consumers in the US.

His goal is to make home-milling as popular as, well, stand mixers, I guess.

This is a sponsored post for Mockmill; I received a mill at no cost and I get a revenue share for mills purchased using my code.

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Whole Wheat Sesame Loaf

Poor whole wheat. It's so often misunderstood. Some people think of whole wheat and assume it's got to be dense and chewy.

It doesn't have to be that way.

When my buddies at 37 Cooks hooked up with Bob's Red mill, we got two types of flour to work with - organic all purpose white, and organic whole wheat.

Of course I had to make at least one loaf of bread. And I figured I might as well make a whole wheat loaf.

If you want a seriously soft and fluffy whole wheat bread, this is the one for you. It's soft, it's fluffy, it's light, it's squishy. And it's nice for sandwiches or toast.

The dough is very loose and sticky, so I suggest kneading with a stand mixer, if you have one. If you knead by hand, the stickiness of the dough is going to make you want to add flour to keep it from sticking to the work surface and to your hands.

It wouldn't be awful if you added a tad more flour, but try not to add too much.

If you like, this is the type of dough you can knead in bowl using a large dough scraper to move it around. It really is that loose and goopy.

Whole Wheat Sesame Loaf

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup Bob's Red Mill organic whole wheat flour
1 large egg
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Toasted sesame seeds, as needed

Put the water, yeast, and whole wheat flour in the bowl of your stand mixer and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. Yes, I'm serious. Let it sit and bubble.

Add the egg, bread flour, salt, honey and butter.

Knead with the dough hook until the dough is elastic. It will be sticky and very soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for an hour. It should be doubled in size.

Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with baking spray. Use a dough scraper to transfer the dough to the loaf pan. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top (this will help keep the dough from sticking to your fingers) and use your fingers to press the dough into the pan so it fills it mostly evenly. It's fine if the dough doesn't fill completely into the corners.

Sprinkle more sesame seeds on top, if you like. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the pan or slightly higher - about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake the loaf at 350 degrees until it's nicely browned and it reaches 200 degrees in the interior - about 40 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

I received flour from Bob's Red Mill through 37 Cooks.

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Oat-Wheat Loaf

Now that the holidays are over, many people are on their way to vowing to eat better. What that means depends on what kind of bad eating has been going on. For me, sometimes my "be good" vow includes an effort to eat something in the morning instead of just slurping a cup of coffee.

The problem is that I'm not much of a morning person. I don't want a meal. If something is easy - cold pizza for instance - I might be tempted. But I don't like typical breakfast foods in the morning, and even more than that, I don't have any interest in cooking anything resembling a meal in the morning.

Around the holidays I get even busier than usual, and my non-breakfast sometimes turns into non-lunch. So when I think about improving my eating habits, I start considering ways to eat something simple in the mornings. 

Of course, there's always some kind of bread around. But not every bread inspires me to make toast. And not every bread I make fits my criteria for reasonably healthy breakfast. This one does. White whole wheat and oatmeal add enough fiber and flavor. If I want a little protein, peanut butter isn't far away.

Another benefit to this bread is that making it is designed to work around your schedule. There are plenty of times when the dough rests, and you can stretch that time to fit your schedule.

Oat-Wheat Loaf

1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (1 3/4 ounces) quick oats
1 1/2 cups water, divided
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4  teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups (9 ounces) bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

The night before you want to bake, put the white whole wheat flour and the oats into a bowl (use the bowl of your stand mixer if you will be kneading by machine, or use any medium sized bowl if you will knead by hand. Add 1 cup of very warm tap water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter overnight.

In the morning, put mix the remaining 1/2 cup of water (lukewarm this time) with the sugar and yeast in a small bowl, and let it sit until it is foamy, about ten minutes.

Add the yeast mixture and the bread flour to the bowl with the white whole wheat and oats, and mix until combined. Then knead (with the dough hook, or by hand on your counter) until it begins to become elastic. Add the salt and oil and continue kneading until completely incorporated.

Drizzle a little olive oil into a plastic bag and transfer the dough to the bag. Seal the bag and place it in the refrigerator.

In the afternoon or evening - or the next day, if that's better for you - take the bag out of the refrigerator and leave it on the counter to come to room temperature, about two hours.

Prepare an 8-inch loaf pan - spray with baking spray if you want extra insurance that it will release easily, and sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom of the pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Knead briefly, then shape the dough to fit the pan, and place it, seam-side down in the pan. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled - about an hour.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake the loaf at 350 degrees until nicely browned, about 40 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove it and let it cool completely before slicing.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

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Light Cottage Wheat Bread, V.2

Yesterday, I overbaked a loaf of bread, but I liked it otherwise, even though I also let it overrise. So I decided to make it again, using a different technique. Why make it the same way, if I can do something different, right?

The white whole wheat in this loaf adds some healthy fiber, and the cottage cheese adds moisture and richness. But although it's got the whole wheat, it's appealing to folks who want white bread for a sandwich.

This time around, I used all the same ingredients in the same amounts, but the technique was different; Not only did I avoid the mistakes of over-rising and over-baking, but I also opted for a same-day bake instead of an overnight rest in the refrigerator.

This bread has a different texture than the first one, and it has the same moistness and good flavor.

So, in yesterday's question of whether the ingredients or technique matter most, in both cases, the ingredients did their job, and the flavors are similar. But technique changed the texture of the bread signifcantly. The interesting thing was that when my technique was so flawed yesterday, the bread was still good. So good ingredients helped, and I've got to say that the other key was that the formula was a winner as well.

The ingredients today are the same as yesterday, but I'll repeat it, for convenience. The instructions are different.

Light Cottage Wheat Bread

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup (4 oz.) white wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 oz.) bread flour
1 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast and sugar, mix well and set aside for five minutes until it begins to bubble. Add the white wheat flour and mix well. Set aside for 15 minutes, until it is vigorously bubbly and frothy.

Add the salt, bread flour, and cottage cheese, and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. The dough may remain bumpy from the cottage cheese curds that don't completely disintegrate in the dough, but the dough itself should be smooth.

The tricky part about adding a product like cottage cheese to a bread is that different brands will have different amounts of moisture. The cottage cheese I used was fairly dry, but if yours is wet, you might need more flour. But don't be too generous. This is a fairly wet dough.

Add the olive oil and continue kneading until the olive oil is completely incorporated, and the dough is elastic, shiny, and no longer sticky.

Drizzle some olive oil over the dough and loosen it all around from the bowl. Cover the bowl and set aside to rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

When the dough has doubled, punch it down, form it into a ball, and put it back into the bowl to rise again until doubled, about 40 minutes.

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Flour your work surface and knead the dough briefly, and form it into a log that will fit into the pan.

Place the dough in the pan, seam-side down, cover the dough with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise until it has doubled, about 30 minutes. it should rise just about the rim of the pan.

When the dough has risen, slash the dough and bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until the bread is nicely browned.

Remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing. If you prefer a soft crust, cover the bread with a kitchen towel while it is cooling.

This has been submitting to Yeastspotting.

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Light Cottage Wheat Bread

The question sometimes comes up as to which is more important - technique or ingredients. Sometimes it's about which you need to make a great dish, and sometimes it's about which to blame when things go horribly wrong.

When it comes to bread, I think that it's very forgiving, if you know how to adjust. If you don't add enough yeast, you let it rise longer. If you can't bake it right away, it's happy to rest in the refrigerator.

Well, this bread was plagued with problems. My problems; no blame for ingredients or equipment.
The first problem was that at one point in the process, I let the bread overrise drastically.

The second problem was that I overbaked it. Silly me, I heard the timer, but knew that I probably had another five minutes to go, so I didn't rush into the kitchen right away.

Then I got involved in what I was doing and forgot the bread had beckoned. Twenty minutes later, the bread was a bit overdone. The crust was over-browned and a bit thick, and it was pretty hard and crunchy when I was cutting it. Considering all the egregious errors on my part, it was actually a pretty good bread. The only problem was that I had planned on using the bread for sandwiches, and the crust was a little hard for that. But the taste was good.

Overall, the bread was pretty forgiving. It was destined to be really good until I overbaked it, and even then it was a decent loaf.

Here's the recipe as it should have been, and I'll note my errors as well.

And just for the fun of it, there's another version of the same recipe tomorrow.

Light Cottage Wheat Bread

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup (4 oz.) white wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 oz.) bread flour
1 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast and sugar, mix well and set aside for five minutes until it begins to bubble. Add the white wheat flour and mix well. Set aside for 15 minutes, until it is vigorously bubbly and frothy.

Add the salt, bread flour, and cottage cheese, and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. The dough may remain bumpy from the cottage cheese curds that don't completely disintegrate in the dough, but the dough itself should be smooth.

The tricky part about adding a product like cottage cheese to a bread is that different brands will have different amounts of moisture. The cottage cheese I used was fairly dry, but if yours is wet, you might need more flour later. It's fine if this dough is a little wet right after kneading - the flour will absorb more moisture as it rests overnight, so hold off on adding flour until it has rested.

Add the olive oil and continue kneading until the olive oil is completely incorporated.

Drizzle some olive oil into a plastic bag and move the dough to the bag. Seal the bag and put it in the refrigerator for an overnight rest.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and knead it briefly, still in the bag, to knock the air out. You'll probably need to open the bag to let air out to be able to knead it.

Leave the dough in the bag on the countertop until it warms up and rises, about an hour. Here's where I made my first mistake. The dough was on the countertop for almost three hours before I got back to it, and it had risen and fallen. And hour would have been fine, or maybe two. Three hours was a bit much. But I carried on anyway.

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Flour your work surface and knead the dough briefly, and form it into a log that will fit into the pan. Place the dough in the pan, seam-side down, cover the pan with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise until it has doubled, about 30 minutes. it should rise just about the rim of the pan.

When the dough has risen, slash the dough and bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until the bread is nicely browned.

Remove from the pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing. If you prefer a soft crust, cover the bread with a kitchen towel while it it cooling.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

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White Whole Wheat Batter Bread

I decided to make another version of batter bread, this time with white whole wheat flour.

You've probably read instructions that warn not to overbeat a cake batter.

You've probably headed that warning, but have you ever been curious about what happens and how long it takes before the batter is over-beaten?

Making this bread is an excellent opportunity to see what happens as the gluten develops, and in this case you want that gluten to be very well developed.

White Whole Wheat Batter Bread

1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups (8.5 oz.) white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
Cornmeal, baking spray, olive oil, and additional butter (as needed)

Mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, and let it sit for about 10 minutes to get foamy.

Add the buttermilk, white whole wheat flour, salt and butter, and beat at medium speed with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer. If you have a bowl scraper paddle, you can just let it run. Otherwise, stop the mixer once in a while to scrape the mixture down.

Keep beating until the dough is the consistency of bubblegum stuck to the bottom of your shoe on a hot day. This will take about 16 minutes of beating.

It will be sticky and loose and stretchy. Very stretchy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover the bowl. and let the batter rest for an hour. Stir it down and cover it again. Let it rest for another half hour.

Meanwhile, spray an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan with baking spray and sprinkle it liberally with cornmeal..

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After the second rest, scrape the dough into the prepared loaf pan. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of the batter and with spread it over the top of the batter and at the same time, smooth out the top of the batter. The olive oil will help keep the plastic wrap from sticking to the top of the dough as it rises.

Cover the loaf pan with plastic and let the dough rise until it is about 1/2 inch from the top of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes. If you like, brush the top of the bread with a bit of butter for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

This was a decent sandwich loaf, and it was fine as my morning breakfast bread for several days. On the other hand, I think this method has great potential...for something. I just don't know what that "something" is yet.

But I'm working on it.

Yum