07.05.08

It’s 7:30 AM, and I’ve been up for 2 hours!!

Posted in The creative side of life at 7:33 am by Meg

And I am so not a morning person.

During the summer I’ve been setting my alarm for 8 and working on getting out of the shower by 9 (and yes, that means I’m usually not bouncing out of bed when the alarm goes off!)

I got up so early this morning (or actually, I should say Girl got me up so early this morning…) because it’s project submittal for everything else. And she’s decided that she wanted to bake her bread this morning instead of last night - so it will be extra fresh.

It’s yeast bread and we have to get it there between 8:30 and 11 AM - so she’s shooting for 10 AM and wanted to get started at 5:30. And the good mother/supporter that I try to be, said I’d get up with her. For joy.

Anyway, she’s doing it all herself, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want my opinion on multiple steps. - yeah, I’m her expert - do you know how many loaves of yeast bread I’ve baked? I could count them on one hand and have fingers left over. I love my bread machine.

She made a practice loaf a few days ago and it came out fairly good. We do have a standing joke about what coarsely chopped onions means - yes, it has onions. She’s chopped onions before, but the “coarsely” term threw her. She left them chunked in huge pieces - yeah, they are better in this loaf. We also cut the amount of onions in half this time.

We also decided to cut the amount of pepper. I don’t know if I don’t cook with pepper because I’m sensitive to it, or that I’m sensitive to it because I don’t have it in a lot of foods. The original recipe called for a tablespoon. Eating it, my entire mouth tingled. Girl agreed, but Hubby and our friend, T, thought it was fine. We cut it back to 2 teaspoons.

Anyway, after all these teases, I figure I’d share the recipe she’s using.

Rosemary Country Bread ( It’s suppose to have olives, but she cut those out first thing.) It’s from The New Basics Cookbook by Rosso and Lukins - a favorite of mine. She needed a recipe with a specialty grain - whole wheat, rye, oat, or bran (etc.)

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons of sugar

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of yellow cornmeal

3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup coarsely chopped onions (originally 2/3 cup)

2 tablespoons rosemary leaves

(orginally 2/3 cup pitted Nicoise olives)

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons ground black pepper (originally 1 tablespoon)

2 cups whole-wheat flour

3 to 3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Stir the yeast, warm water, and milk together in a large bowl. Let the mixture stand until the yeast has dissolved, 5 mins.

2. Add the sugar, ½ cup cornmeal, butter, onion, rosemary, salt, pepper, whole-wheat flour, and 2 cups of the all-purpose flour; beat well. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 to 3 mins, adding the remaining all-purpose flour as necessary to make a workable dough. Let the dough rest for 10 to 15 mins.

3. Knead the dough again, until it is smooth and elastic, 10 mins. (Sprinkle it with flour as you knead if necessary to keep it from sticking.)

4. Lightly oil a large bowl, and turn the dough in it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1½ hours.

5. Punch the dough down and divide it in half. Shape each half into a round loaf. Sprinkle a baking sheet with the remaining 2 tablespoons cornmeal, and place the loaves on it, seam side down. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise again until barely doubled in bulk, about 45 mins.

6. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350° F.

7. Bake the bread until it is well browned and sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped with your finger, about 45 mins. Remove it from the baking sheet and set it on a wire rack to cool.

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