Tried and true

I'm in the posting doldrums right now. Got a bunch of stuff keeping me busy but it's not really stuff to share with the world at large. So you get pictures of the dog. And candy. And spring flowers. Which are nice in their own way.

This daffodil is blooming in my yard right now. I can enjoy it through the window today, as we've gone back to the 30s and it's all cloudy. I used to laugh at people here who would complain about one or two cloudy days. Now I'm one of them.

And then there's the bread. Always with the bread, no matter the weather. The Nutella and the bread. Which in this case came together very nicely. We've got swirl, people!

We may not have sunshine but at least there's chocolate.

On a roll

I'm getting the hang of this Nutella loaf thing. Spreading the dough out into a bigger rectangle and using about half a small jar of Nutella gets it closer to what I envisioned.

Cow-orkers, of course, say Thumbs Up!

Nutella bites

I'm sure you've on pins and needles (ahem) since my mystery post. No, I'm not mainlining Nutella. It's a substance best administered orally, and I wanted to see if I could improve my delivery system by creating Nutella bites: little nuggets of dough filled with the stuff and baked like monkey bread.

Here's the result:
Looks pretty good, doesn't it? BUT.
When I cut it open (photo on the left), I found that I really wasn't able to get that much Nutella inside using a poultry injector. (Which I suspected; it was not easy squeezing the plunger!) For comparison, I also filled some dough balls by spreading them out, spooning a big dollop of Nutella on and wrapping the dough around it. (Photo on the right.)

That proved more successful:
Still, the Nutella ends up mostly near the edges rather than the center. I'm not sure how to remedy that. Maybe I can't. Do you have any ideas?

I ate the whole plate yesterday (in the interest of quality testing, of course), then lapsed into a carb- and chocolate-induced coma. Ah, the prices we pay in search of perfection.

What is it? No. 8

Here's one that may not leave you much more enlightened after you click the photo. (That is, if you click the photo, you'll see exactly what this is, but the question remains: Why?) Let's just say I'm doing a little experimenting. I'll reveal the results later.

You may hate me for this

The basic no-knead dough recipe works just as well with sweet things as savory. Pull out a hunk, flatten it a bit, smear on a very generous application of Nutella and roll it up.

Bake at 450 covered for 15 minutes, then take the lid off and start checking it after another 5 minutes. You don't want it to burn. (Mine started to a little on one end.)
Here it is, sliced, after some cow-orker depredation. And appreciation. It's very yummy. I recommend serving it warm if at all possible.

A different kind of no-knead bread

Kris posted on her blog about "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," with the recipe for the basic dough, as opposed to the sweet brioche dough I already used to make caramel pecan rollsand chocolate almond challah. (She also has videos in her later posts.)
You mix up the dough (6.5 cups flour, 1.5 Tbs yeast, 1.5 Tbs salt, 3 cups water), let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours, then refrigerate. I did that last night.
Today I cut off a hunk of dough, shaped it and let it sit for 40 minutes, then topped it with wheat bran, spicy sesame mix and salt. The recipe doesn't call for toppings other than flour, but I wanted to see how it would taste compared with the no-knead bread I'm used to making.

Also, the recipe says to put the dough on a pizza peel with cornmeal, then slide it onto a heated pizza stone and put a broiler pan in the oven with water in it. I don't have any of those things. But really, the whole dutch oven technique is supposed to duplicate the moist heat of a bread oven, so I just did that instead, cooking it at 450 degrees for 20 minutes with the lid on and another 10 uncovered.
Hey look! It's a nice, crusty loaf! This is indeed more convenient than the other method, since you can make a big batch of dough days in advance, and then make several loaves as needed throughout the next week or two.

I'll experiment with the next ones in shape and possibly fillings. Thanks, Kris! And thanks, too, to "Artisan Bread" authors Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François.

P.S. My parmesan long loaf variation came out great. And the red-pepper gruyère rolls? Stellar! And then there's the Nutella bread. Ohhhh my.

Challah with chocolate-almond filling

I don't feel up to doing all the fancy formating right now (long day), so you're getting big, centered pictures of my Adventures in Challah. I think you can deal with that.

As I noted yesterday in the caramel pecan rolls post, the recipe came from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," as adapted by Jaden at Steamy Kitchen. Happily, Jaden provided another recipe so I could use up the rest of the dough with something different: No-Knead Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah.

Well, I didn't have any Nutella on hand, but I did have a jar of almond butter and a 2 oz. bar of Sharffen Berger 60% pure dark chocolate. Here they are in wedded bliss, no roller skates and earphones needed:
The dough, as before, is shaped into a loaf and left to sit for a bit to warm up, then divided in three and rolled out into snakes, with an indent poked down the length of each one to receive the filling.
Then the sides are pinched together and the snakes braided to make a loaf.
Brush with egg wash, scatter toasted crushed almonds on top (I didn't have hazelnuts, either) and bake. Pretty!
Again with the close-up (see the filling there?):
I let it cook a little too long, since I was thinking it should be a little more golden on the top, but it still tasted quite fine. I don't have pictures of it sliced because it went straight to work and was devoured quickly.

When I make this again, I will use much more filling. Much much more. And get sliced almonds for the top.