Buttermilk Bread (Bernard Clayton)

I love the Laurel's Kitchen buttermilk bread recipe. Not quite as much as I love featherpuff bread, but it's pretty close!

Clayton includes a different take on buttermilk bread in his book. He makes it as a white bread, brushed with an egg glaze and sprinkled with seeds. I liked it well enough, but I think I prefer the Laurel's Kitchen approach. That said, it's nice to have both in your back pocket: a bread for every palate and occasion!

Buttermilk Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 500-600g hard white flour (or all-purpose flour), divided
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast)
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1/3 c. unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• sesame and/or poppy seeds

Directions

1. Combine ~250g of the flour with the sugar, salt, baking soda, and yeast.
2. Warm the water, buttermilk, and butter over low heat until softened and gently warmed through.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat for 2 minutes.
4. Add another 100-150g of flour and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
5. Switch to dough hook or kneading by hand from here on out and continue adding flour until a soft dough is formed.
6. Knead until smooth and elastic (5-8 minutes by machine or ~20 minutes by hand).
7. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise at room temperature for ~90 minutes. (May need somewhat more or less time depending on temperature of room.)
8. Once fully risen, knock back and divide into two equal pieces.
9. Round each piece of dough, cover, and rest for 5-10 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, grease two 21x11cm (8.5x4.5") loaf pans.
11. Shape each ball into a loaf by your preferred method and place seam-side-down in the prepared pans.
12. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for ~45 minutes.
13. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
14. Beat the egg and brush the tops of the loaves with it. Be careful not to let any egg drip down the sides of the pan or your loaves will not come out of the pan cleanly!
15. Sprinkle tops with sesame and/or poppy seeds as desired.
16. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30-40 minutes.
17. Allow to cool in pans for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks to finish cooling.
18. Cool completely before slicing.

Lasoon Sengdane Batate chi Bhajee (Garlic-Peanut Potato Curry)

We had some potatoes that needed to be used up and I needed another dish to go with the eggplant curry for dinner last night, so this potato curry was a natural choice. (I had originally been hoping to also make a dal go to with it to add a little more protein to the meal, but I ran out of energy and just stuck with the two veggie curries in the end.)

TF usually isn't that big a fan of potato curries. But surprisingly, in this case she actually preferred this to the eggplant one! Honestly, they were both excellent. Although grinding up the peanuts and garlic and whatnot for the initial step of the recipe did take a bit of elbow grease. Next time I might try using the "food chop" setting on the blender rather than doing it in the molcajete. Hopefully that will streamline the process a bit.

Lasoon Sengdane Batate chi Bhajee

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp. raw peanuts (without skins)
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2 Tbsp. peanut oil¹
• 450g potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 small (~400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1 c. water
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 12 fresh or frozen curry leaves

Directions

1. Combine the sesame seeds, peanuts, garlic, and chilies in a blender, food processor, or molcajete and pulse to form a finely chopped, slightly gritty blend. (If using a molcajete, you may want to add a small portion of the salt to help aid in breaking down and grinding the garlic and chilies.)
2. Heat the oil over medium-low heat.
3. Add the minced blend to the oil and cook, stirring, until the mixture turns brown and begins to get somewhat crumbly (5-8 minutes).
4. Add the turmeric and cook for another 5-10 seconds.
5. Add the potatoes, tomatoes, water, and salt and stir to combine.
6. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender (30-40 minutes).
8. Stir in the cilantro and curry leaves and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any peanut oil, so I decided to go for sesame oil instead. If you don't have either of those, then I think that canola oil or ghee would also be fine. (Although obviously don't use ghee if you need to keep things vegan.) ^Back

This is another mix-and-match pancake creation courtesy of The Breakfast Bible. I just used the standard whole wheat pancake recipe and added a bit of coconut and pinapple to the batter, then topped them with even more pinapple and coconut. McMillan suggests a combination of pineapple, coconut, macadamia nuts, and maple syrup for the topping. I didn't have any macadamia nuts, so I tried it with a few slivered almonds instead. That was good, but, in retrospect, I think that a few toasted pumpkin seeds would have been even better. I also ended up adding a dollop of plain Greek yogurt to mine. I felt that this made them a little more substantial and brought everything together. That said, if you really wanted to double down on the coconut flavour, then I think some whipped coconut cream would go a treat on these!

Piña Colada Pancakes

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Batter

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. rolled oats (pref. quick oats)
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 c. buttermilk
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 c. unsweetened dried coconut
• 1/2 c. finely diced fresh pineapple

Toppings

• plain Greek yogurt and/or whipped coconut cream
• chopped fresh pinapple
• toasted coconut chips
• macadamia nuts and/or toasted pumpkin seeds
• maple syrup

Directions

1. Combine the flours, oats, and salt and sift in the baking powder and baking soda.
2. In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup), beat the eggs with the buttermilk.
3. Mix the butter into the wet ingredients
4. Pour the wet into the dry and stir until just combined.
5. Mix in the coconut and pineapple.
6. Preheat a pan, griddle, or tawa over medium heat.
7. Lightly grease the pan if necessary.
8. Use ~1/4 c. of batter per pancake. Cook 1-4 at a time, depending on the size of your pan.
9. Cook each pancake until it is browned underneath and bubbles form on surface.
10. Flip and cook until the other side is browned and pancake is cooked all the way through.
11. Serve topped with yogurt (or coconut cream), pinapple, coconut chips, nuts/seeds, and maple syrup.

This was another Dutch baby that just came out so-so. It was okay. The apples and cinnamon in it were nice. It just wasn't great. It came out a little more bread-y and a little less puffy than I typically prefer for this sort of thing. That said, maybe this is one of the dangers of doing your measurements by volume rather than by weight. The proportions are very important for a recipe like this. So ending up with slightly more or less flour than required because you didn't level the scoop quite right could throw things off.

Unfortunately, this cookbook doesn't include weights, just volumes. So I just rolled with that. I have included estimates of the equivalent weight for the flour in brackets. Hopefully next time I can do it that way and see if it yields a better result.

Dutch Baby with Apples and Browned Butter

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2/3 c. milk
• 2/3 c. (80g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced
• maple syrup, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Combine milk, flour, cinnamon, salt, and eggs in blender and blend until smooth.
3. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter and, with the blender running, drizzle the melted butter into the batter. Set aside.
4. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the remaining butter over medium heat and cook until the butter beings to brown.
5. Add the apples and cook, turning/stirring occasionally, until the apples are golden all over (5-10 minutes).
6. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of butter and cook until melted.
7. Spread the apples into an even layer and pour the batter over them.
8. Transfer to oven and bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15-20 minutes.
9. Remove from oven, cut into wedges, sprinkle with icing sugar or maple syrup, and serve.

This bread was delicious. Unhealthy, but delicious. In addition to using white flour and being enriched with milk and butter, the dough also includes a cup of sugar cubes! The cubes get lightly crushed before getting worked into the dough and form little pockets of melted sugar upon baking. A lovely -- if somewhat decadent -- result.

I actually ended up using some fancy saffron-infused sugar cubes for my rendition of this bread. They imparted a wonderful aroma and colour to the loaves and the saffron flavour came through quite nicely. Given that the sugar cubes were already flavoured, I decided to omit the cinnamon in this version. That said, I do think the cinnamon would have been delicious with either plain or cardamom-infused sugar cubes (which I may, in fact, try next time). In the meantime, this was a great success and I have no complaints about how it turned out.

Frisian Sugar Loaf

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 1 c. sugar cubes
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
• ~750g all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 c. skim milk powder
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 3/4 tsp. instant yeast)
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. hot water (50-55°C)
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. With an ice pick or tack hammer crack -- but do not crush! -- the sugar cubes.
2. Toss the sugar pieces with the cinnamon (if using) and set aside.
3. Combine ~250g of the flour with the milk powder, yeast, and salt.
4. Add the hot water and shortening and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.
5. Add the remaining flour ~50g at a time until the dough comes together in a rough mass.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15-20 minutes, adding a handful of sugar pieces every few minutes until all of the sugar has been incorporated.
7. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise for 1-2 hours¹.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into two equal portions.
9. The cut edge will be sticky. Carefully pinch the edges together to close the seam and cover the sticky sugar.
10. Now round each portion of dough, cover, and set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, grease two loaf pans (preferably 21x11cm), line them with parchment paper, and grease the paper.
12. Once the dough has rested, shape each portion into a loaf by your preferred method and place the loaves into the prepared pans.
13. Cover and set aside to rise for 30-60 minutes.
14. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
15. Uncover loaves and slash as desired.
16. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes.
17. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes.
18. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
19. Turn pans on their sides on the cooling rack and gently pull on the parchment paper to ease the loaves out of their pans.
20. Place loaves on cooling rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.

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¹ Rising time will depend on the temperature of your room. Allow to rise until dough maintains the indent from a wet finger pressed ~2cm into the surface. If it fills in, it needs more time to rise. If it sighs and or sinks back, it is over-risen and should be knocked back immediately. Ideally you will catch it before it reaches the point of being over-risen. But as long as it's only slightly over-risen, the bread should still be salvageable. Just keep a close eye on it for any remaining rises. ^Back

I cheated big-time for this recipe. If I were doing it properly, I would've made not just the waffles and gravy, but also the fried chicken from scratch. But I really didn't want to have to set up for deep frying or put that much effort into it. So instead, I went down the street and got some fried chicken tenders and served those with the waffles and gravy. And they were delicious! No regrets.

Fried Chicken and Waffles with Bacon Gravy

Slightly adapted from Waffles: Sweet, Savory, Simple by Dawn Yanagihara

Ingredients

• 170g bacon
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 2 1/2 c. milk
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/8-1/4 tsp. Tabasco (or similar) hot sauce
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 classic, buttermilk, cornmeal, or malted waffles
• 4-8 pieces chicken tenders (or fried chicken)

Directions

1. If making fried chicken from scratch, prepare it first, then continue with the recipe.
2. Crisp the bacon over medium heat.
3. Remove the bacon from the pan, leaving behind the fat/grease.
4. Chop or crumble the bacon and set aside.
5. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of fat from the pan. If you have less than 2 Tbsp. of fat, supplement with lard or other fats as necessary.
6. Whisk flour into fat and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Gradually whisk the milk into the roux.
8. Add the bay leaf and Tobasco sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
10. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and simmer vigorously, stirring occasionally, until thickened (~5 minutes).
11. Return the bacon to the pan. If you made your own fried chicken from scratch, add any drippings or crispy bits that you strained out of the frying oil after using it.
12. Cover and keep warm, stirring occasionally, until ready to use.
13. Meanwhile, cook the waffles.
14. Top each waffle with a generous portion of gravy and 1-2 pieces of chicken.
15. Add extra hot sauce or other condiments as desired.

I've made other applesauce cakes before, but I'd never tried the one out of The Breakfast Bible specifically. And since I am apparently trying to 100% as many cookbooks as possible, I decided to give it a go. It was pretty good. But, honestly, I think I probably prefer the version out of the Kidlet's ATK cookbook over this one. Still... glad I tried it. If nothing else it's another recipe to check off and another point for comparison.

Applesauce Crumb Cake

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Cake

• 370g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 200g sugar
• 200g brown sugar
• 3/4 c. canola oil
• 3/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3 large eggs
• 3 apples, peeled and cubed

Crumb Topping

• 120g all-purpose flour
• 100g brown sugar
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23x33cm (9x13") baking pan.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup), combine the sugar, brown sugar, oil, applesauce, and eggs.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined.
5. Add the apples and stir until just mixed.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
7. Combine the flour and sugar for the topping and cut in the butter.
8. Press into a ball and then separate into coarse crumbs.
9. Sprinkle the crumbs over the cake.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~1 hour.
11. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
12. Once cooled, cut into squares and serve.