Cook the Book: Hybrid Quick Bread
Making bread is always a fun and rewarding endeavor. I've heard those who regularly make and knead their own bread even develop some pretty muscular forearms in the process. While I'm all for getting toned while making bread, sometimes I just don't have the time to work on my physique.
Food Matters includes several bread recipes, all with words like no-work, quick, and easy, in the title. This hybrid quick bread takes about an hour of largely inactive time, so you'll have plenty of spare minutes to do some bicep curls—or not.
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Hybrid Quick Bread
- serves 4 to 6 -
Adapted from Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman.
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for the pan
2 cups whole wheat flour, plus more if needed
1 cup all-purpose white flour, plus more as needed
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, preferably coarse or sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
3/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk
3/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons honey (optional)
Procedure
1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease a cookie sheet or 8-inch square baking pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt in a food processor and turn the machine on. Into the feed tube, pour first the 1/4 cup olive oil, then the yogurt, most of the water, and the honey (if you're using it).
2. Process for a few seconds, until the dough is a well-defined, barely sticky, easy-to-handle ball. If it is too dry, add the remaining water 1 tablespoon at a t ime and process for 5 or 10 seconds after each addition. If it is too wet (this is unlikely), add 1 or 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour and process briefly.
3. Form the dough into a round and put it on the cookie sheet or press into the prepared pan, all the way to the edges. Bake for 20 minutes then sprinkle the top with a little coarse sea salt, and continue baking for another 35 to 40 minutes, until the loaf is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely, then cut the bread into slices or squares and serve or store for up to a day.
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7 Comments:
For a minimalist, it always surprises me when Bittman writes recipes that call for using a food processor or other fancy equipment when a simpler tool would probably do. Couldn't I just mix this up in a bowl with a good old wooden spoon?
Embackus at 2:05PM on 03/10/09
Sure! Why not? I wouldn't use a food processor anyway since I don't even have one :)
Grace Kang at 2:07PM on 03/10/09
@Embackus
Bittman is also a big proponent of doing stuff on your own, and a lot of people get freaked out by bread, or think that it's too much effort. So I think using a food processor (which I don't consider to be that fancy; less so than a stand mixer, at any rate) might convince those who'd otherwise move on.
And FWIW, Bittman did an article for the NYT last year about outfitting a kitchen on the cheap. He recommended getting everything from a restaurant supply store, and I think the only mechanical device he recommended was the processor -- and even that was optional.
flurie at 2:55PM on 03/10/09
Wow, this sounds really good, I might try it later with all whole wheat flour and mixing it up in a bowl.
debstah at 3:57PM on 03/10/09
That little amount of time in the FP is the equivalent of a lot of kneading in terms of gluten development. You're not going to get the same results. Might still be good, but just not what you'd get with the FP.
From a minimalist standpoint, whizzing it in the FP for a short time is a heck of a lot easier than hand kneading.
dbcurrie at 9:08PM on 03/10/09
Well, I'd love to use a food processor, but I don't have one. And my kitchen's too small for one anyway.
debstah at 1:40PM on 03/14/09
Debstah, don't give up on a food processor just yet! I have what I believe is the tiniest kitchen ever. Smaller than the tiny kitchen Mark Bittman wrote about in a recent Minimalist column with barely enough room for two thin people to stand in it.
Counter space permits a food processor, toaster oven, utensils jar & small bamboo cutting board. One person has room to chop veggies & prep food. The 2nd person can use the apartment-sized stove or maybe wash dishes if we're careful not to elbow each other.
We cook many complex & wonderful meals in our tiny space. If your kitchen is truly too small for a food processor, maybe you could store one in a closet or basement.
verak at 6:46PM on 03/18/09