Bread Machine (123 page)
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and place the loaves on the baking sheet.
Immediately place the loaves in the oven (it won’t be up to temperature or hot yet) and bake for exactly 12 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes, or until the breads are brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom with your finger. Remove to a rack to cool before cutting into wedges to serve.
The Right Ingredient: Fats Used in Breads
Fat brings out the flavor, provides the desirable mouth-feel, and makes the texture of bread softer, especially the sandwich-type loaves made in the bread machine. Remember that in most cases it is not the type of fat you use, but the proportions. I found that recipes made by hand that usually needed no fat did need a dab when adapted to the bread machine to keep the texture soft and balance out the other ingredients. Fat lubricates the developing gluten and makes a loaf that slices without tearing or falling apart.
Use butter or margarine for delicate, rich breads with beautiful crusts (sticks of butter have the increments measured on the side for exact portioning), croissants, and sweet breads. Use vegetable oil such as sunflower, canola, corn, or safflower for hearty, whole-grain breads; good olive oil for Italian or low-cholesterol breads; peanut and sesame oils for Oriental breads; lard (which is surprisingly less saturated than butter) for ethnic breads; and nut oils, such as hazelnut, walnut, pecan, and pistachio for artisan and sweet breads.
Cut the butter into pieces before placing it in the bread pan; the mixing action will incorporate it evenly. Avoid low-fat margarine unless called for; it ends up more a liquid than a fat addition and throws off a recipe. To substitute oil for butter in a recipe, reduce the amount of liquid by 1 tablespoon to balance the recipe.
The best omega-3 oils for optimum health include olive oil, walnut oil, canola oil, and flax seed oil. Saturated fats include cheese along with butter (the animal fats). Monosaturated fats that are still good for you include olives, peanuts, and avocados.
POTATO BREAD WITH CARAWAY SEEDS
T
he Roman legions brought caraway with them on their treks north when they occupied lands up to the Danube River in their settlement at Aquincum. Perhaps that is when the tradition of baking with caraway seeds began in what is now Hungary. Caraway is one of the four prominent seasonings of Hungarian baking, along with marjoram, dill, and thyme. One of the most famous Hungarian breads is this one, made with potatoes and aromatic caraway seeds. It is served with meals—alongside a good
gulyás
(beef and green pepper stew), with stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce, or accompanying pork chops baked on a bed of sauerkraut. This is a fast recipe, since you don’t have to cook potatoes to make it. I use a potato water made with instant mashed potatoes, in combination with potato starch flour. If you have potato water left over from making mashed potatoes, please go ahead and use it, leaving out the instant flakes. This is a soft bread with a crisp crust.
1
1
/
2
-POUND LOAF
1
1
/
3
cups warm water
2 tablespoons instant potato flakes
1
1
/
2
tablespoons butter or lard
2
2
/
3
cups bread flour
1
/
3
cup potato starch flour
1
1
/
2
tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons gluten
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1
1
/
2
teaspoons salt
1
3
/
4
teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
1
/
4
teaspoons bread machine yeast
2-POUND LOAF
1
2
/
3
cups warm water
3 tablespoons instant potato flakes
2 tablespoons butter or lard
3
1
/
2
cups bread flour
1
/
2
cup potato starch flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon gluten
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
1
/
2
teaspoons bread machine yeast
Place the instant potato flakes in the water in a bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes. The flakes will expand and soften, and the water become cloudy.
Place the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions, adding the potato water with the butter or lard as the liquid ingredients. Set crust on dark and program for the Quick Yeast Bread or Rapid cycle; press Start. (This recipe is not suitable for use with the Delay Timer.) The dough ball will be smooth and soft. If the dough rises more than two-thirds of the way up the pan, gently deflate the dough a bit. This will keep the dough from hitting the window during baking.
When the baking cycle ends, immediately remove the bread from the pan and place it on a rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing.
DAVID SOOHOO’S BAO
Makes 6 buns
B
ao
buns, encasing a filling of
char siu
pork, are a popular dim sum item in Cantonese restaurants. Traditionally, they are steamed until fluffy white. Immigrant chefs who came to America discovered that when baked, the buns turned golden, resulting in a sort of Asian hamburger, which pleased the locals.
Chef David SooHoo and his wife, food writer Elaine Corn, own Bamboo restaurant in Sacramento, California, and the baked pork
bao
is the most popular appetizer on their restaurant menu. It took David five years to develop this particular recipe, a repeated draw at his cooking classes, but he has been making
bao
since he was a teenager cooking in his father’s restaurant. Today he easily prepares the dough in his BreadMaker bread machine, comparing the results to other rich egg breads like challah and brioche. SooHoo doubles this dough recipe (you need a 2-pound-loaf capacity machine to do this), knowing the dough is ready when it pushes up the lid a bit. He also likes to stuff the
bao
with 1-inch cubes of cheese, such as cheddar or Brie. David says it takes three times to master any recipe, and especially the handwork involved in the shaping of these buns, which utilizes techniques that are repeated throughout Chinese cuisine. For that real Chinatown flavor, buy the meat ready-made from an Asian grocery’s deli department, where it is cooked the traditional way—in a hanging oven.
1
1
/
2
-OR 2-POUND-LOAF MACHINES
For the bao dough:
2
/
3
cup water