The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [63]
What amazing bread this is! The flavor is quite special. Good hot from the oven, good for egg salad or tofu sandwiches, good with pale cheeses, good toasted, and a good keeper.
Cook the beans. Drain them, reserving the liquid.
Add cold water to the bean liquid, or pour some of it off, to bring the measure to 2 cups. Either mash the beans with a potato masher and then combine them with the 2 cups liquid, or blend beans and liquid together in an electric blender or food processor until nearly smooth. Cool the mixture to about 100°F. Add molasses and oil. The total measure should be about 1 quart.
Dissolve the yeast in the ¼ cup warm water.
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the bean mixture and the yeast to the flour to make a soft dough. Knead very well, about 20 minutes. Add the raisins toward the end of kneading. Cover the dough and let it rise very warm, about 95°F.
After about 45 minutes, gently poke the center of the spongy dough about ½ inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all, or if the dough sighs, press it flat, form again into a smooth round, and let it rise once more as before. The second rising will take about half as long as the first.
Press the dough flat, divide in two, and form rounds. Let it rest until it is soft again, which won’t take long. Gently form into fat round hearth loaves or regular pan loaves (8″x4″); either shape will work very well. Let them rise about half an hour. Don’t slash the crust. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for about an hour.
Breads with Milk & Eggs
Milk is not a necessity in breadmaking, and the traditional breads of Europe attain their impressive spectrum of distinguished flavors and textures without it. Europeans save the butter and cheese to put on top. But on this side of the Atlantic, bakers have generally welcomed the contributions milk makes to the quality of dough, and to the bread it becomes. In this section we explore some ways of using dairy products to make loaves that are more nutritious, longer-keeping, lighter, more interesting.
On the nutrition score, adding milk to bread significantly increases its protein and mineral content. Milk also improves bread’s keeping quality and makes the crumb texture tender as well. Loaves made with milk have a subtle sweetness, a close, delicate texture, and a richly colored crust. Whole wheat breads with milk taste softer, less wheaty, than those mixed with water.
Doughs made with milk tend to be a trifle sticky, but even so, when used properly, milk makes life easier for the baker because it increases the length of time that the dough is ready to shape and bake, giving more leeway in timing. In addition, yeast is stimulated by milk, and one of milk’s proteins, casein, strengthens the gluten so the bread can rise higher. It’s important, though, to scald fresh milk because that protects the dough from two other milk proteins that would otherwise inhibit its rise.
Pasteurized milk has been heated already, it’s true, but this low-temperature process is not enough to denature the gluten-weakening proteins. When you scald milk, skin forming on top signals that it has reached the required temperature: it is then ready to cool and use in your bread. (Scalding is not so important when the proportion of milk to other liquids in the recipe is half or less.)
DRY MILK Supermarket powdered milk is produced by a low-temperature process to protect its flavor, and it is not ideal for use in baking, at least in sizable amounts, unless it is first reconstituted and scalded. As with fresh milk, though, if the proportion of powdered milk used is small, no more than ¼ cup non-instant powder per two-loaf recipe, usually the effect on the bread is not detrimental.
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