Rustic Olive Flatbread

I’ve made a lot of King Arthur Flour recipes, and often there’s a special ingredient or flavoring that is noted as optional. I usually don’t have that ingredient, so I skip it and the recipe is still delicious. This recipe, which Michele told me about, uses King Arthur Flour’s Olive Artisan Bread Flavor, and not as an optional ingredient. The flavor mix includes flour with black olives, garlic, olive oil, rosemary, and oregano – all flavors that I like, so I ordered some to give it a try.

And the verdict is…this is a tasty flatbread! The flavor mix, plus olive oil and salt on top, is delicious. I’ve made other similar recipes and have liked them all, so it’s not required to buy special ingredients to make this kind of bread. But it turned out great and I’m looking forward to trying the flavoring in other recipes. This flatbread takes a full cup of the flavor mix, but they recommend adding just 1/4 to 1/2 cup to other bread recipes. I plan to try it in pizza crust – why not have some olives in the crust as well as on top of the pizza?

This is another recipe that Michele and I baked together (virtually speaking), and she posted about it today too, so be sure to check out her thoughts on the flatbread.

If you want to give this a try, you can get the recipe here on King Arthur Flour’s site. Did you know that you can view their online recipes in Volume, Ounces, or Grams? I appreciate that feature every time I use a King Arthur Flour recipe!

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Pretzel Rolls

This year, I was asked to bring pretzel rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve never made pretzel rolls before, but I was up for the challenge, and I knew that King Arthur Flour would come through with a good recipe.

I made a trial-run batch and was happy that they weren’t as much of a hassle as I expected: the dough rises for an hour, then it’s formed into rolls that rise for 15 minutes. After that they get a quick boil in a water-baking soda-salt bath, then a couple of slashes on top and a sprinkle of salt before heading into the oven.

Voilá! Rolls with a golden, chewy, pretzel crust. These are best served warm, so pop them in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 325-350º to warm them up and crisp the crust before serving.

The recipe is for “sandwich bun” size, so when I made them on Thanksgiving Day, I divided the dough into 15 rolls instead of the 10 that the recipe specifies. The smaller size was perfect for a dinner roll.

I’m so happy that Michele made these with me and is posting them on her blog today. Hers look fantastic, and she even provides information for making a vegan version.

If you’re ready to expand your roll-making horizons, give King Arthur Flour’s Pretzel Sandwich Buns a try.

Cream-Filled Coffeecake

When I read King Arthur Flour’s blog post about this Cream-Filled Coffeecake, I was intrigued. The story behind the recipe involves a woman famous for making coffeecakes, and equally famous for not divulging the recipe. At her funeral, her family passed out the recipe. Mystery solved? Not quite – the recipe wasn’t very detailed, so one of the recipients of the recipe turned to King Arthur Flour for help. The revised recipe is now published on their site. The interesting story, plus a taste for what I’d call an old-fashioned coffeecake, spurred me on to give this a try.

Here it is just out of the oven:

And the finished, filled coffeecake:

I wondered if the cake part would be too bread-like, but it was light and airy and was complimented perfectly by the sweet topping and creamy, vanilla filling. As good as the filling was, I wanted more of it and would have liked it to be a bit more fluffy.

I made this recipe along with my blogging friend Michele, who changed it up and made a different topping and filling. Be sure to check in with her blog, Veggie Num Nums, to see how hers turned out!

Recipe notes:

• The recipe is here on King Arthur Flour’s site.
• Don’t expect to make this in the morning and serve it for breakfast. The mixing, rising, resting, baking, and cooling all add up to quite a bit of time (not all of it hands-on). The total time on the recipe is up to 4 hours 15 minutes, but I think I spent at least 5 hours total, start to finish.
• It was at its best the afternoon of the day I made it. The next day, it was still tasty, but was dry. The recipe says it can be frozen, so next time I’d freeze it right away and then defrost right before eating (it should defrost pretty quickly).
• A whole recipe makes a huge cake with 20 servings. I made a half-size cake and baked it in an 8″ springform pan. It is very tall, so that’s still a good-sized cake. For a half-recipe, I made 1/2 the amount of dough and 3/4 the amount of topping and filling (proportions are in accordance with the recipe’s tip about making two smaller cakes – you need to increase the topping and filling amounts).
• Another recipe tip says to be gentle when combining the two parts of the filling. I ended up with some flour lumps, so I vigorously whisked it. The lumps were gone and I thought it looked fine.
• Watch the baking time. I baked my smaller cake for 35 minutes, and probably could have taken it out at 30.

Rosemary Focaccia

I’m a big fan of focaccia. I’ve made quite a few different recipes but this one might be the one.

Could you say no to this wedge of deliciousness?

It takes just moments to mix up the starter, which sits overnight. On baking day, there is some amount of tending to the dough between several short rises. Nothing complicated and it’s totally worth it. If you’re ready to get baking, you’ll find the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated here.

Crunchy Seed Braid Bread

I’m all about a seeded, grainy bread, and this Crunchy Seed Braid from King Arthur fit the bill better than I could have imagined. White whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend give this bread lots of taste and texture.

This was another virtual baking session with my friend Michele, who also gets credit for suggesting this recipe. Thanks Michele! This one is a keeper.

Recipe notes:

• Instead of mixed seeds, I used all sesame seeds on top, because a) That’s what I had on hand and b) I love sesame seeds.
• I have a bag of King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend, but if you don’t want to buy it, take a look at the ingredients – I bet you could mix up your own.
• Instead of using an egg wash to get the seeds to stick, I followed this method from King Arthur (but I rolled the dough to the length stated in the Crunchy Seed Braid recipe). It worked great!
• This baked and browned more quickly than the recipe stated. Keep an eye on it, and be ready to top it with a foil tent to keep it from over-browning.

Give the Crunchy Seed Braid a try, and be sure to see how Michele’s turned out.

TwD Baking with Julia: Rustic Potato Loaves

I’m always up for a new bread recipe, so this week’s recipe for  the Tuesdays with Dorie group went on my baking schedule.

Cooked, cooled potatoes (I peeled them, but the recipe says to leave the peel on) are mashed and then the rest of the ingredients are added: potato cooking water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and flour. Although the first rise wasn’t as quick as the 20 minutes promised by the recipe, the second rise was quick, and overall, it didn’t take long to make this bread. The reward was a soft, tender bread that’s good with or without butter. In fact, this bread was so soft and tender that I wonder if it could be baked in a loaf pan and used as a sandwich bread. Something to think about for next time.

The recipe for Rustic Potato Loaves is on page 138 of Baking with Julia, or our host Dawn will have the recipe posted at Simply Sweet.

TwD Baking with Julia: Focaccia

Here’s the deal: this focaccia was good. I topped it with fresh rosemary, black and green olives, and kosher salt.

But…just a couple of weeks earlier, I made the focaccia recipe from the Flour cookbook, with the same toppings. It was outstanding; therefore, this recipe had a lot working against it from the get-go. However, I will note that the recipe from Flour has a heck of a lot more olive oil in it, which is probably what makes it tastier, but also makes it much more decadent than an average bread recipe. I’d like to have more focaccia in my life, so I’m hoping to find a recipe that’s a happy medium.

Perhaps you, too, need more focaccia in your life. This recipe, baked by the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week, is on page 143 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to Wandering Through, where Sharmini will have the recipe posted.

Hummus Bread (the hummus is IN the bread!)

Hummus in bread instead of on bread? I love, love, love hummus, but this was a recipe I wouldn’t have given a second look if it weren’t for sent me several links from King Arthur’s website. I was intrigued by the hummus bread, so I thought what the heck, I’ll bake it with her. And it was awesome! The hummus makes it moist, but it’s not super-heavy. It was delicious served with a bowl of hearty vegetable chowder for dinner, and, oddly enough, it was great topped with hummus. Hummus on hummus bread!

There’s hummus in the bread! Sesame seeds too!

Recipe Notes

• The bread recipe is designed for a bread maker, but I followed the instructions for making it by hand (I used my stand mixer).
• The recipe includes a hummus recipe. I used one of my favorite hummus recipes instead (this one from Cooking Light). You could use store bought hummus too.
• One of the recipe’s ingredients is Whole-Grain Bread Improver. I just bought some and this was my first time using it. I can’t say what the bread would be like without the improver (which is primarily vital wheat gluten), but it rose beautifully, and I’ll give some of the credit for that to the improver.
• I didn’t have garlic oil, and didn’t want to simmer garlic in oil (which I how I assume you’d make garlic oil), so I used olive oil and sprinkled a little garlic powder in it.

This is a great recipe to try if you like hummus or if you have some hummus to use up. Be sure to click over to Michele’s blog to see how hers turned out.

TwD Baking with Julia: Pizza with Onion Confit

When I looked at the recipe for Pizza with Onion Confit, it was one of those it looks pretty good, but I’m just not sure recipes. But it certainly looked good enough to try, and since I missed both recipes that the Tuesdays with Dorie group made in December, I knew I better get on it and make some pizza.

And now it’s one of those I’m so glad I gave it a try recipes. I’m always up for trying another pizza crust recipe, and I really liked this one. The edges were chewy, and the base was sturdy enough to support a pile of moist onions that were slow cooked in a little butter and red wine vinegar and a lot of red wine. I followed the suggestion in the book to add some goat cheese, olives (I used green), and a sprinkle of parmesan. It was a great combination of flavors and made for a really enjoyable dinner.

When I first looked at the recipe, it seemed time-consuming, but it really wasn’t bad. I made a full recipe of the crust a day ahead of time and stored it in the refrigerator. The next day, while cooking half a batch of onion confit, I divided the dough in half and brought half up to room temperature and froze the other half for another time. The onions need to cook for about an hour, but they do their thing on the stove and need to be stirred only occasionally.

A couple of additional thoughts for next time:

• The pizza crust dough might make good breadsticks. Shape like a breadstick and brush with butter or garlic butter and sprinkle with kosher salt. That thought kept coming to mind as I ate the outside crust.
• As good as a vegetarian version was, some bacon might be really tasty with the onions and goat cheese.

This was another Steve Sullivan recipe (he also contributed the Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf recipe that I loved so much). You can find the recipe on page 157 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to The Boy Can Bake, where this week’s host Paul has the recipe posted, along with lots of tips on making pizza crust.

PS: Sorry Steve Sullivan, but I disagree with you: this was quite good reheated the next day!

Golden Pull-Apart Butter Buns

When I was browsing King Arthur Flour’s recipes to find a Burger Bun recipe, I came across these dinner rolls, and they immediately went on my to-make list. First I made a half-batch to decide if I should make them for Thanksgiving. We inhaled them before I could get a photo, and they immediately went on the Thanksgiving menu. Michele also made rolls, and as with the burger buns, she tried a different recipe so that we could compare.

Tender and tasty, these are great on their own, but it doesn’t get much better than a bite of warm roll spread with butter.

Both times that I made these, I followed the instructions for making them a day ahead of time: after the first rise, the dough is shaped into rolls and partially rises before going into the refrigerator overnight. The next day, they come out of the fridge and rise the rest of the way before baking. This worked great on Thanksgiving – I baked them in the morning and warmed them before dinner. Everyone was happy that we had homemade rolls!

More tips:

• If you have a scale, use it: weigh the dough, divide by 16, and that’s how much each roll should weigh. I used to think this was too much trouble, but it’s worth a few extra minutes to have equally-sized rolls.
• The recipe is designed for 8-inch round cake pans; I have 9-inch cake pans, so I put 10 rolls in a 9-inch pan and 6 rolls in a 6-inch pan.

Are you ready to bake some rolls? You can get the recipe for Golden Pull-Apart Butter Buns here on King Arthur Flour’s website. I also spotted some other good-looking rolls on King Arthur Flour’s site. I didn’t have a chance to make them yet, but that’s the recipe Michele tried, so hop over to her blog to see more rolls!