Bread Machine (49 page)
Mary’s French Dessert Cream
Makes 1 cup
Cream is a key ingredient in many dessert recipes and a premier accompaniment when whipped until fluffy.
1 pint heavy cream
1 tablespoon light brown sugar, or to taste
Place the cream in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, and reduce by half; it will take about 20 minutes. Add the sugar to taste, stir until dissolved, and pour into a covered container. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
G
raham bread is a favorite Swedish bread, a bit on the sweet side. While graham flour is technically a whole wheat flour, it gives a very different flavor to bread—extra grain-sweet and nutty—because it is produced through a different milling process. There is no substitute for it, so search it out. I use Bob’s Red Mill brand. You will fall in love with this bread. It is very old-fashioned, and was a staple homemade bread in the 1930s and 1940s.
1
1
/
2
-POUND LOAF
1
1
/
8
cups water
1 large egg
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
2
1
/
4
cups bread flour
3
/
4
cup graham flour
1
/
3
cup nonfat dry milk
1
/
4
cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons gluten
1
1
/
2
teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
1
/
2
teaspoons bread machine yeast
2-POUND LOAF
1
1
/
3
cups water
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
3 cups bread flour
1 cup graham flour
1
/
2
cup nonfat dry milk
1
/
3
cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon gluten
2 teaspoons salt
2
1
/
4
teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
3
/
4
teaspoons bread machine yeast
Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Set crust on medium and program for the Basic or Whole Wheat cycle; press Start. (This recipe is not suitable for use with the Delay Timer.)
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.
R
ye has a characteristically bitter-strong, earthy flavor. It contains only a small amount of a gluten that is more fragile than the gluten in wheat. This gives a loaf a moist, dense quality. A loaf with rye flour in it will ferment more quickly than a loaf that is all wheat and, if overkneaded, can get very sticky due to natural gums in the grain called pentosans. The presence of acid in a rye dough makes it more manageable, so you will see rye breads with ingredients like vinegar, beer, and sourdough.
There are quite a few baking products made from rye. The whole grains, known as groats or berries, are ground into light, medium, and dark rye flours, distinguished by their varying proportions of bran. Pumpernickel flour, also known as rye meal, is the coarsest grind, with the most bran and germ left in. Rolled rye flakes and cracked rye are also good additions to breads; they can be used as substitutes for rolled oats and cracked wheat. With a range of rye flours, you can make all your favorite rye breads in the bread machine, from a chewy pumpernickel or a light Swedish rye to a dark Russian rye, or even pretzel dough. Super-markets will vary in how many rye products they carry, but natural food stores and mail-order flour sources carry most of them.
Because of the saplike gum that appears naturally in rye, and because of its water-binding capacity, rye doughs will always feel moist and sticky when you test them with your finger. This makes it easy to add too much flour during kneading, so be careful not to add more than a tablespoon or two more than the measurement given in the recipe.
When I am teaching people to make bread by hand, I always recommend rising rye doughs in tall narrow plastic buckets rather than wide bowls, as this grain has a natural tendency to rise horizontally rather than vertically. The bread machine handles this beautifully with its baking canister. The warm environment of the bread machine is also perfect for rising rye doughs, as they can easily become slack and cold, especially in winter.
Rye is an incredibly healthful grain. It has vitamin E and rutin, two premium antioxidants, is good for combating cholesterol deposits, and contains insoluble fiber. Since rye contains a type of the gluten proteins found in wheat, it is not suitable for gluten-free diets or for sufferers of celiac sprue disease.
T
here is a Swedish legend that says that if a pair of lovers eat something containing caraway, they will stay faithful forever. Caraway seeds are part of every classic light rye, a bread for which I think almost every home baker in Minnesota (home to a large Scandinavian population) has a recipe. This is daily bread for much of the cold hinterlands.
1
1
/
2
-POUND LOAF
1
1
/
8
cups water
1
1
/
2
tablespoons canola oil
1
7
/
8
cups bread flour
1
1
/
8
cups medium rye flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten
1
1
/
2
tablespoons caraway seeds
1
1
/
2
teaspoons salt
2
1
/
2
teaspoons SAF yeast or 1 tablespoon bread machine yeast
2-POUND LOAF
1
1
/
2
cups water
2 tablespoons canola oil
2
1
/
2
cups bread flour
1
1
/
2
cups medium rye flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons gluten
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon SAF yeast or 1 tablespoon plus
1
/
2
teaspoon bread machine yeast
Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Set crust on medium and program for the Basic cycle; press Start. (This recipe may be made using the Delay Timer.) The dough ball will be soft and springy.