1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
1 medium-size green, yellow, orange, or red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 cups/140 g stemmed and chopped kale
½ cup/120 ml water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2½ cups/500 g cooked brown rice
2 cups/480 ml salsa
1 (15-ounce/439 g) can black or pinto beans, with their liquid
¾ cup/90 g grated Cheddar cheese
Preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C.
Heat the oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables soften and begin to brown. Add the kale and water. Cover and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, or until the kale has wilted down. Add the salt, chili powder, and cumin and stir to combine.
Add the rice, salsa, and beans and stir. Top the ingredients with the cheese and place the pan into the hot oven. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and browned.
Serve immediately.
Note: If you’re the type to double recipes and stash some in the deep freeze for a rainy day, allow me to nominate this dish.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
This is the perfect place for your favorite tomato or tomatillo salsa. Corn salsa is also nice, provided it’s tart and not too sweet.
YEASTED LOAVES AND ROLLS
The recipes in this chapter are divided into two categories. The first three recipes are basic loaves that, when sliced, make truly excellent vehicles to transport your homemade preserves from jar to mouth. They are my hardest-working and most versatile loaves that make good sandwiches, excellent toast, and can be dressed up or down as the mood strikes.
The balance of the chapter contains an assortment of leavened loaves and rolls that actually incorporate preserves. There’s a babka layered with jam and toasted nuts. There is a loaf that uses a generous scoop of homemade chutney for flavor and moisture. There’s a focaccia that can be topped with either sweet or savory preserves. And there’s a formula for swirled rolls that can hold all manner of preserves. I highly recommend the version that’s filled with Cheddar cheese and chutney.
Cinnamon Raisin Loaf
Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
Challah
Babka
Chutney Loaf
Focaccia with Preserves
Swirled Rolls
Filled Sweet Rolls
Cheese and Chutney Rolls
CINNAMON RAISIN LOAF
MAKES 1 LOAF
This loaf is a little different from the traditional cinnamon raisin swirl bread we often see at bakeries and grocery stores. Both the cinnamon and the raisins are kneaded into the dough, making for a slice that delivers big flavor in every bite. Next time you have a party, consider baking a loaf, slicing it thinly, and toasting those slices until they’re crisp. They are the perfect base for soft cheese, slivers of ham, and dollops of jam.
1½ cups/210 g raisins
1 cup/240 ml room-temperature water
1½ teaspoons instant yeast
1½ cups/175 g all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons/65 g honey
2 tablespoons neutral oil, plus more for bowl
1¼ cups/150 g whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
The night before you want to bake, place the raisins, water, yeast, and all-purpose flour in a large bowl to create a sponge. Stir to combine and cover with plastic wrap. Let the sponge rise overnight at room temperature.
The next day, stir the honey and oil into the sponge. In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, cinnamon, and salt, then work it into the sponge by hand to create a dough.
Transfer the dough to a floured board or counter and knead for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the dough comes together into a slightly sticky ball about the size of a large grapefruit.
Drizzle a little oil into the bowl and put the dough ball back in it. Roll it around a little to coat the dough in oil and cover again with plastic to rise.
Let the dough rise until it has nearly doubled in size (because of the raisins, honey, and oil, this bread is a modest riser), 2 to 3 hours. Gently deflate the dough and roll it up so that it’s loaf-shaped, then nestle it into an oiled 8 × 4 × 2.5-inch/20 × 10 × 6 cm loaf pan.Cover it with plastic wrap so that the top doesn’t dry out and let it rise a second time.
About 45 minutes into the second rise, preheat the oven to 400°F/204°C.
Once the top of the dough crests the top of the pan (this should take about an hour), remove the plastic wrap, cut a shallow channel down the center of the loaf with a sharp knife, and place the pan in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes and then lower the heat to 375°F/190°C. Bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes.
The bread is done when it has reached an internal temperature of 190°F/88°C. If the top starts to overbrown before the interior has reached the proper temperature, gently cover with a piece of foil. Turn the bread out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
Tightly wrapped, this loaf will keep on the counter for up to 5 days. For longer storage, refrigerate or freeze.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Try it toasted with peanut butter and pear jam.
OATMEAL SANDWICH BREAD
MAKES 1 LOAF
This is my favorite sandwich loaf and is one of the recipes in this book designed to serve as a perfect pairing for your homemade preserves. It makes an excellent nut butter and jam sandwich. I also love it under the Rarebit with Relish (here) and it’s a good candidate for some of the Fancy Toast (here). And when it’s gotten too dry and crumbly even to be toasted whole, grind it into crumbs, toast them, and use them in place of the panko in the Crab Cakes (here).
¼ cup/60 ml honey
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
1 cup/100 g rolled oats
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for bowl and pan
1½ cups/360 ml boiling water
1½ cups/180 g all-purpose flour
1½ cups/165 g whole wheat flour
1½ teaspoons instant yeast
Place the honey, salt, oats, and butter in a large mixing bowl and add the boiling water. Stir to combine and let stand until the oats swell up and the mixture has cooled to lukewarm (110°–115ºF/43°–49ºC), about 8 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours and yeast. Add that to the oat mixture and stir to combine (use your hands here if you can’t hack it with a wooden spoon). Gently turn and knead just a little by hand, until all the flour is incorporated.
Set the dough ball on the countertop, rinse and dry your mixing bowl, and lightly grease it with butter. Return the dough to the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Set the bowl somewhere warm and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours.
Grease an 8 × 4 × 2.5-inch/20 × 10 × 6 cm loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough and roll it up so that it’s loaf-shaped, then nestle it into the prepared pan. Cover again with the plastic wrap and let it rise until the dough peeks over the top of the pan by about 1 inch/2.5 cm, 30 to 40 minutes.
While the bread rises, preheat the oven to 425ºF/218ºC. Remove the plastic wrap, place the pan on the middle rack of the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 350ºF/180ºC and bake until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, an additional 25 to 30 minutes. If you greased your pan well, it should be easy enough to tip the loaf out to check. Just take care to protect your hands. The bread is done when it reaches an internal temperature that reads about 190°F/88°C.
Turn the bread out of the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.
Tightly wrapped, this loaf will keep on the counter for up to 5 days. For longer storage, refrigerate or freeze.
RECOMMEN
DED PRESERVES:
This bread can handle just about any preserve you throw at it.
CHALLAH
MAKES 1 LOAF
I started baking with my Great-Aunt Doris when I was five years old. She’d wrap me up in an apron, I’d climb onto a kitchen chair positioned next to the counter, and she’d spin stories of when she and my grandmother were little girls in with the flour and butter. We started with cinnamon twists, moved on to Quick Strudel (page145), and finally, when she thought I was ready for yeast, we moved on to challah. Aunt Doris didn’t dwell on the religious significance of the traditional loaf (though I now know it is steeped in history). She simply stated that every Jewish woman needed to know how to make challah. I cannot bake a loaf without thinking of her.
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup/240 ml warm water (110°F/43°C)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4½ cups/540 g all-purpose flour, divided
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 large egg, separated
¼ cup/60 ml neutral oil, plus more for bowl
Stir the honey into the warm water until it begins to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast across the top of the water and let it sit for 10 minutes, or until the yeast is frothy.
Place 4 cups/480 g of the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also mix this by hand, but using a mixer is admittedly easier). Stir in the salt. Add the beaten eggs, extra egg yolk, oil, and the yeast mixture. Mix to combine. Once the ingredients are integrated, switch to the dough hook and begin to knead (you can also do this by hand on a board).
Work the dough for 5 to 7 minutes, adding more flour to the dough as you work, if it’s too sticky to knead effectively. Eventually, the dough should come together into a soft, slightly tacky, smooth ball.
Grease a large bowl with a drizzle of oil and place the dough ball in the bowl. Move it around until the dough is fully coated with the oil. Cover with a plastic bag, plastic wrap, or a damp kitchen towel and tuck it some place warm for a couple hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen sufficiently, gently deflate it. Divide the dough into 6 portions and roll them out into thin ropes about 14 to 16 inches/35 to 45 cm in length. Initially they won’t want to maintain their length, but if you let them rest a little between each stretch-and-roll session, they will eventually relax into the shape.
When all your strands are of the appropriate length, lay them out next to one another. Gather them together at the top and give them a good pinch to secure them together. Then, begin your braid.
Starting on the right side, grab the strand that is next to the farthest to the right and cross it over to the far left. Then, grab the farther right strand and move it to the middle of the strands. Shifting to the left side of the strands, pick up the strand that is one in from the far left and move it all the way over to the far right. Then pick up the farthest left strand and move it to the middle.
Continue like this, alternating sides, moving the second strand from the edge over to the other side of the loaf and then moving the farthest strand to the middle, until you’ve braided the whole loaf. Pinch the braided ends together and tuck under the loaf a bit.
Once your braid is complete, place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover it with plastic wrap while it rises for about an hour, or until the strands look plump. As the loaf rises, preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. When the loaf has finished rising, whisk the reserved egg white together with a tablespoon of water. Using a pastry brush, generously paint the loaf with the egg wash.
Bake the challah for 30 to 35 minutes. It is done when it is deeply browned and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom. If you have an instant-read thermometer, the interior of the loaf should register 190°F/88°C.
Let the loaf cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
This bread is the perfect vehicle for any sweet spread and also is terrific in the Layered Bread Pudding (here).
BABKA
MAKES 2 LOAVES
Some people think a babka requires chocolate to truly be called a babka, but I firmly believe that jam makes just as good a filling. I use a trick here that I learned from fellow canning author Cathy Barrow and add some freshly made breadcrumbs (see note) to the filling to help hold the jam and nuts in place.
1 cup/240 ml milk
2 tablespoons/25 g active dry yeast
4 cups/480 g all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 tablespoons/85 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for bowl and pans
½ cup/100 g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons/85 g melted unsalted butter
2 cups/480 ml jam (each cup can be a different flavor, as they won’t mix)
2 cups/240 g walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped
1 cup/40 g fresh breadcrumbs (see note)
1 large egg, beaten with a little water
Heat the milk in a small pot over low heat or in a glass measuring cup in the microwave just until lukewarm (110°–120°F/43°–49°C). Sprinkle the yeast on top of the warm milk and let it sit for 5 minutes, or until it is foamy.
Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
Combine the room-temperature butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until well integrated. With the mixer running on low speed, alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, until both are incorporated.
Stop the mixer and switch to the dough hook. Knead for 4 to 6 minutes on low speed, or until the dough comes together and seems quite soft and smooth.
Butter a large bowl and set the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap and set the bowl in a warm spot to rise until the dough has doubled (remember that if your ingredients were quite chilly, the rising time might be even longer), between 1 and 2 hours.
Once the dough has doubled, gently deflate it. At this point, you can either refrigerate your dough and pick up the following day, or you can proceed. If you do put the dough in the fridge overnight, you will need to give it a couple of hours at room temperature to warm up before proceeding.
Divide the dough into 2 equal-size portions. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the first portion of dough into an 18 × 12-inch/46 × 30 cm rectangle. Leaving a 1-inch/2.5 cm border of bare dough on one of the short edges, generously paint the dough with half of the melted butter. Spread 1 cup/240 ml of the jam over the butter. Distribute half of the toasted nuts and half the breadcrumbs over the jam.
Starting with the short edge without the uncovered 1-inch/2.5 cm border, carefully roll the dough into a tight log, working toward the bare edge.
Once the dough is rolled, press it down to seal. Slice the loaf in half lengthwise down the middle, leaving the top inch/2.5 cm of the roll uncut and still intact.
To twist the babka into its traditional shape, grab the ends and twist them in opposite directions toward the outsides of the loaf. Some of the nuts will fall out as you do this and the loaf might look a little funny. The second rise should resolve any issues.
Repeat the rolling, filling, rolling, and twisting with the second batch of dough.
Nestle the twisted loaves into buttered loaf pans, cover them with plastic wrap, and let them rise for about an hour at room temperature, or until they puff and begin to approach the rim of the baking pans. While they rise, preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. Brush the babka with the egg wash and bake until an instant-read thermometer indicates that the loaf is about 190°F/88°C inside, 35 to 40 minutes. Make sure to test the temperature for both loaves, just in case your dough was imperfectly divided.
If the jam begins to caramelize excessively before the internal temperature rises to the proper point, cover the loaves with aluminum foil
and continue to bake.
Remove the pans from the oven, set them on a wire rack, and allow the loaves to cool until the jam is no longer molten and the layers have started to meld together. When you’re safely able to handle the loaves, remove them from the pans and let them cool to room temperature on the racks.
Note: Making fresh breadcrumbs couldn’t be easier. Simply pulse stale or lightly toasted bread in a food processor. You can save scraps of good bread in the freezer for this purpose.
RECOMMENDED PRESERVES:
Opt for something sweet and well set here. I like apricot, cherry, or peach jam, but seedless raspberry would also be good.
CHUTNEY LOAF
MAKES 1 LOAF
The idea for this loaf came from UK food writer Dan Lepard. In his baking book Short and Sweet, he includes a recipe for a Winter Apple Loaf that includes a generous portion of chopped apple, minced onion, and hard cider or vinegar. That combination of ingredients is similar to how many of my favorite chutneys start, and I began to wonder whether I could bake a sliceable loaf that included a healthy portion of chutney in the dough. This recipe is the result of that moment of curiosity and I could not be happier with the outcome.
½ cup/120 ml chutney
1 cup/240 ml warm water (around 100°F/38°C)
2¼ teaspoons instant yeast
3½ cups/420 g all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
¾ cup/110 g toasted sunflower seeds
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
Oil for bowl and pan
Place the chutney, water, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Add the flour, sunflower seeds, and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together and then switch to using your hands. Work the dough in the bowl until all the flour is incorporated. Form the sticky dough into a ball and drizzle a little oil on top. Rub the oil across the top of the dough and around the sides of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rise until it has nearly doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours. Grease an 8 × 4 × 2.5-inch/20 × 10 × 6 cm loaf pan.
The Food in Jars Kitchen Page 10