Packed with carrots and perfect for the autumn (or spring!) table.
Some of my personal goals for this year included delving into the numerous (and mostly unused) cookbooks on my shelves, baking new kinds of breads, and making much better use of all the beautiful herbs in my kitchen garden.
I've been doing okay, but with this new recipe I hit the personal goal jackpot. It's a variation of the carrot bread in Bread: Artisan Breads from Baguettes and Bagels to Focaccia and Brioche by authors and cooking instructors Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno (he's French, she's Italian).
I've been reviewing this book, and my opinion of it can be summed up in one word: wonderful. Wait, make that two words: wonderful and inspiring. This is the second recipe I've made so far, and the first bread, a round Italian Rosemary Raisin Loaf, is as pretty as it is delicious.
Here's a little blurb from the book jacket, and it's all true:
Bread mixes delicious recipes with essential techniques to provide the home cook with practical reference and inspiration. From mixing and shaping to proofing and glazing—each stage of the bread-making process is clearly explained, with problem-solving tips and a complete illustrated guide to key ingredients and equipment to help you succeed. Bread's step-by-step demonstrations of the principles and practices of bread-making will give you the confidence and skills to try its tantalizing range of over 100 breads.
If you learn best by looking at pictures, then this is definitely the book for you because it's packed with gorgeous, full-color photos. And while it's a perfect book for beginners (I already know at least one budding bread baker who'll be receiving a copy for Christmas), I think many experienced bakers would also enjoy it.
I've already discovered all sorts of handy tips and useful nuggets of information, and there are several more breads I'm planning to make, including the Hungarian Potato Bread, Dark Chocolate Bread (1¼ cups of cocoa powder!), Swedish Dill Bread (made with cream cheese), and the Prune and Chocolate Bread ('a deeply indulgent loaf, chock-a-block with juicy prunes and melted chocolate').
There's also an intriguing recipe for a straight dough (as opposed to sourdough) Pane con Pomodori e Cipolle Rosse (Tomato and Red Onion Bread) which looks similar to the Fresh Tomato & Basil Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread I wrote about last month.
One of the nice things about it is that many of the breads start with the same basic recipe and build on it, which means trying all sorts of different breads suddenly becomes much less daunting.
Variations on the same recipe are also often given. For example, you can take the American multi-grain bread and turn it into sunflower and honey bread, cracked grain bread, or shape it into rolls. The pita bread recipe includes a whole-wheat version as well as instructions on how to make Lavash (Armenian Flat Bread).
A new holiday tradition?
Farmgirl Susan's Carrot Herb Rolls
Makes sixteen 3-inch rolls — Adapted from Bread: Artisan Breads from Baguettes and Bagels to Focaccia and Brioche
**Click here to print this recipe**
The carrot bread recipe this is adapted from came from the chapter in Bread called Flavored Breads, and what caught my eye was its use of raw shredded carrots. Other variations included are: spinach bread, beet bread, chili bread, onion and caraway bread, and herb bread (which didn't include the carrots).
First I made the plain carrot dough, shaping half into a round loaf and the rest into rolls. The second time around I dove into the herb garden first, emerging with fistfulls of fresh parsley, rosemary, and thyme which I tossed into the mix. I also substituted 1 cup of white whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the bread flour.
The result? Flavorful, healthy, autumn-colored rolls that I think would be a welcome and interesting addition to any holiday table. They have a soft but substantial crumb and a chewy crust that crisps up nicely when reheated. They also freeze beautifully. You can really taste the carrots, and a taste-tester friend I gave some to reported that they're great with goat cheese.
As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference. At around a dollar a pound and readily available, organic carrots are a bargain. Look for organic flours in the bulk sections of natural food stores.
I highly recommend investing in a couple of heavy duty commercial rimmed baking sheets. At less than $14 each, they're one of the best kitchen deals around. Treat them well—I usually line mine with sheets of unbleached parchment paper, which is wonderful stuff—and they'll last for ages. I've been using the heck out of some of mine for 20 years for everything from baking scones to roasting Brussels sprouts, not to mention baking thousands of cookies.
3 cups organic bread flour (15-3/8 oz, 437 g)
1 cup organic white whole wheat flour (5 oz, 143 g)
2 teaspoons (10 ml) instant yeast
1½ cups warm water (12 oz, 335 g)
2 Tablespoons organic butter, melted (1 oz, 28 g)
2¼ cups organic carrots, finely shredded (13-7/8 oz, 380 g)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (3/8 oz, 10g)
2 Tablespoons (30 ml) chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tablespoon (15 ml) chopped fresh thyme
2½ teaspoons (12 ml) salt
At first it may seem like there are too many carrots. There aren't!
Mix the whole wheat white flour, bread flour, and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the water and melted butter. Stir until combined. Mix in the carrots, parsley, rosemary, and thyme and stir until a soft sticky dough forms.
Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead 5 minutes, sprinkling on a little more bread flour if necessary to keep dough from sticking to your hands and the work surface.
Kneaded dough read for a rest (autolyse).
Cover dough with bowl and let rest 20 minutes (this rest period is called the autolyse).
Sprinkle the salt over the dough and knead for another 5 minutes, until the salt is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth and still slightly sticky, adding more flour if necessary.
It's so easy to see if the rising dough has doubled in size.
Put the dough in a clear, straight-sided food grade plastic container with a snap-on lid and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours. I mark the height of the unrisen dough and the doubled height on the side of the container with a felt tip pen (it comes off when scrubbed with a sponge). You could also use a piece of tape.
The ideal temperature for rising dough is about 70 to 75 degrees F. If the air is cooler, you can use warmer water when mixing the dough or simply let it rise longer (which will actually improve your finished bread).
An instant read thermometer, like the one you can see poking into my dough in the photo above, is an inexpensive, handy little item that is extremely helpful when baking bread. Use it to check the temperature of your ingredients (water, milk, even flour) before adding them. Then use it to check the temperature of the dough while it's rising.
You can even check the air temperature in your kitchen by putting the thermometer in a glass of room temperature water (this is also a good way to accurately check the temperature inside your refrigerator).
You may be surprised at just how much such a small investment will change your kitchen experiences. Once you start using one, you'll probably wonder how you ever lived without it. These thermometers are called "instant," but it does take a few seconds to get a reading. There are also digital versions available, but I've never used one.
Once the dough has risen, punch it down by pressing down with your knuckles into the center of the dough. Turn the dough out of the container onto a lightly floured work surface, then let it rest for 10 minutes.
Shaped rolls ready for proofing.
Divide the dough into 16 pieces, about 3 ounces/84 grams each. To shape round rolls, press down on the pieces to expel any air bubbles. Cup the palm of your hand over each piece and roll it over an unfloured surface until it forms a smooth ball.
If you don't want your finished rolls to end up touching each other, simply space them farther apart on two baking sheets. Either bake both sheets at once, or set the second one in the refrigerator or someplace cool while the first one bakes. Alternatively, you can place the dough balls closer together and in a circle to make decorative pull-apart rolls.
Risen and ready for the oven.
Place the rolls on a heavy duty baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper.
Sprinkle rolls lightly with flour and cover with a tea towel. Proof until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
About 20 minutes before baking, heat oven to 400 degrees (205C).
For a light shine and crisp baked crust, brush rolls with lightly salted water immediately before baking. I use a silicone pastry brush.
Perfect for mini sandwiches, too.
Bake in preheated oven until the tops are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container or freeze. If desired, reheat at 350F (175C) for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. The crust will crisp right back up.
Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes (including several other bread recipes) in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.
© FarmgirlFare.com, the crazy for carrots foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote acres.
Bake in preheated oven until the tops are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container or freeze. If desired, reheat at 350F (175C) for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. The crust will crisp right back up.
Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes (including several other bread recipes) in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.
© FarmgirlFare.com, the crazy for carrots foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote acres.
