French Bread Add-Ons!

Alright, French bread, as I said in my last post, is very versatile! One of the things we can do is fill them up with something:

Wash your hands, and get ready!

Ham and Cheese Bread:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2 lb of Ham
• 1 TBS of Cream Cheese
• French Bread dough as shown in my last post (http://alejandroskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/03/french-bread.html)
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 TBS of milk

Steps:

1. Make the dough for the French Bread as shown in the last post.
2. Put some flour on the table, or countertop, get a rolling pin and try to spread the dough into a rectangle having the largest sides to be the length of the bread (about 17 inches). The dough is going to try to go back to its former shape so its not going to be super easy to spread it out. The dough should be about 1/4 of an inch thick.
3. Get the 1 TBS of Cream Cheese and spread it through the dough. This is supposed to be a very thin layer. Its going to maintain the Ham and the Cheese very moist after cooked. Remember to leave about a 1/2 inch margin without ingredients in order to close the dough properly.
4. Spread the all the Ham through the dough as well as the Cheddar Cheese.

Shape the Bread:

1. Roll the dough into a cylinder making sure that the sides are well closed. Before you completely close the bread (when there is about 1 inch of dough left), get the dough and cross it over the cylinder. This way we make sure its well closed.
2. Make cuts in the bread with a sharp knife. They should be diagonal and about one inch in depth. Three or four is enough. These will let the bread to expand while cooking
3. Let the bread rise for about one hour and a half.

Cooking the Bread:

1. Before putting the bread to cook. Mix the egg yolk with the TBS of milk (any milk is fine) and brush them slightly on top of the bread. Don't be too harsh because the bread candeflate, but be sure to spread the mixture everywhere but the bottom. This will give a nice golden colored crust.
2. Put in the oven at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Until the crust in golden and it makes an "empty" sound when hit. On the picture there is one French bread (right) and one Ham and Cheese Bread (left)

Another thing you can do is cut the regular french bread in pieces of about 1 inch thick and put some ham and cheese on them and put them back in the oven. You can even sprinkle some oregano on them, and have something like on the picture below.

Final Add-Ons:

1. You can make it your own type of Bread:

• Various Cheeses - Provolone, Cheddar and Swiss match well!
• Ham and Cheese with Mustard - instead of the Cream Cheese you mix a little bit of milk with mustard and you spread it just like the Cream Cheese.
• Salami and Provolone - Diced Olives, Salami, and Provolone Cheese.
• Chicken Special - Mix in a pan with a little bit of vegetable oil: 1 of 2 cloves of Garlic chopped, half an Onion finely chopped, 1 TSP of Salt and Pepper, 1 Tomato chopped, and 1/2 pounds of shredded boneless Chicken. Cook until the chicken is cooked and the onions look a little golden (I usually like to put the onions and the garlic first, they take a little longer to cook). Drain it a little bit, let cool and then spread it through the bread. If you want to you can put a little bit of swiss cheese on top of it before closing the bread.
• Topping the bread: With the same mixture of one Egg yolk and 1 TBS of milk (this is called an egg wash) you can add anything to the top of the bread. While still wet of the egg wash add some sesame seeds, or maybe sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top of it with oregano.

Have fun and remember, be clean and have caution in the kitchen!!

- Alejandro

French Bread

The French bread was one of the first recipes that I have ever done. After trying a couple many times I found the right recipe. French Bread is very versatile and there are many recipes that can be done with it. This is the first of a bunch of recipes about French bread.

Wash your hands and get ready!

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon of Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups of Unbleached Bread Flour
• Extra Unbleached Bread flour
• Warm water
• 1 Tablespoon of Salt
• 1 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 Teaspoon of Sugar
• Non-stick Oil Spray

Kitchenware:

• Oven
• 1 Large bowl (Pyrex)
• 1 measuring cup
• 1 Sharp knife
• 1 Baking sheet
• 1 Wooden spoon (or anything to stir)
• 1 spray bottle/brush
• 1 pan
• Plastic covering sheet or a regular supermarket bag.

Making the Dough

1. Get the yeast into the cup and about 1 cup of warm water. Let the yeast proof for at least 10 minutes while you do the “dry” dough.
2. Mix the four cups of bread flour, the salt, and the sugar in the large bowl. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
3. After the 10 minutes have passed, melt the tablespoon of butter (microwave is fine, don't let it boil too much) and add it together with the yeast mixture into large bowl. Start mixing with the spoon.
4. The dough is going to be still very dry and dense so we need to add more warm water. About one cup. OBS. The dough does not have to get sticky, but the entire flour has to detach from the container. It can take a little bit more water (maybe another half a cup). If it's too wet and you don't want to start again just add some more flower until its not sticky.
5. After getting the dough mixed we throw some flour on a clean table and start working the dough. This process is called kneading. The kneading consists in pushing the dough to the front and then folding it. You can do this any way you want, the objective is to get all the ingredients well mixed and the dough a nonstick and soft texture. Knead for about 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Let the dough rest while you clean the big bowl. Wash it with warm water, this way the bowl will be warm (but dry) for the next step.
7. Place the dough inside the bowl and close the bowl with the plastic covering sheet (you can also just close the bowl on a supermarket bag). Let it rest in a warm place (80-82 degrees) for two hours. The dough will double in size.
8. This dough is ready to be used!

Shaping the Bread

1. After resting the dough, put some flour on the table and knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
2. Split the dough in half.
3. Get one of the halfs and spread it in a rectangular shape on the table with your hands making it ½ inch thick. It does not need to be perfect.
4. Roll the dough and make a cylindrical bread shape. The bread needs to be about 17 inches long in order for it to have a thickness that will allow it to cook entirely and not burn the crust. Keep on rolling and pulling on the side to get the desired size.
5. Make cuts in the bread with a sharp knife. They should be diagonal and about one inch in depth. Three of four is enough. These will let the bread to expand while cooking.
6. Spray the baking sheet with oil (there's a special oil can that has flour in it. I recommend it, like PAM Baking) Place the loafs in the baking sheet as apart as possible. Keep in mind that the breads will double in size after resting and double in size in the oven.
7. Spray the breads with water, just moist them but not to get them wet. This can also be done with a brush.
8. Let rest for one hour and a half in a warm place. The loafs will double in size.
9. Don’t mind that the breads don’t look beautiful, while they grow the small imperfections will disappear.

Cooking the Bread:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Put some water in a pan inside the oven. This will create some steam which will prevent the crust of the bread to get extremely crunchy.
2. Repeat the process of moistening the bread with the spray bottle.
3. Check if there’s still water in the pan on the oven, re-fill it if needed.
4. Place the bread in the over the baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.
5. The bread will be ready when the crust turns brownish and when the crust is hit the bread makes a hollow sound. The bread can be left a little bit longer to get a crunchier crust.

Have fun, the next post will be about what we can do with this recipe!

- Alejandro

Alejandro's Kitchen

This blog, Alejandro' Kitchen, is going to be about my own recipes. Breads, sweets, real meaty and veggie foods that I have performed here at my college dorm kitchen. I have been cooking for a while now, the recipes can go from easy to hard, and can last a long time or not. Because of being in a multicultural ambient that is my college I have learnt recipes, and changed them as well, from all around the world.

Remember to have fun while cooking, change the recipes as you wish, and ask questions if you want to! Cook with love and with caution!

- Alejandro