Whole Wheat Flatbread

The term "flatbread" immediately takes me to visions of a crispy, salty thin bread dipped in olive oil or smeared with a soft cheese, perfectly enjoyed with briny olives and a glass of red wine. It turns out that Beth Hensperger's version of flatbread is more like a focaccia loaf. Her cookbook, "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook," is a follow-up to her her James Beard Award-winning book "The Bread Bible." My mom very thoughtfully gifted me with the BLBMC when she gave us our bread machine for Christmas and I've been pouring through the book regularly, overwhelmed by the range of recipes (300!) that can be created in a bread machine (including jams and chutneys!). Unfortunately, I missed the mark out of the gate, trying a recipe that I naively believed would yield a pan of crispy, crunchy, cracker-like bread even *after* I added the required 2.25 teaspoons of yeast. It turns out that lots of yeast does not a thin, cracker-like bread make!

No matter. It was still pretty delicious and provided the perfect platform for toddler-sized pizza when topped with tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese.

*WHOLE WHEAT FLATBREAD*
Yields one (1) jelly roll pan's worth of bread

Ingredients
2/3 cup water
1 cup milk
3 T olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 t yeast

Combine all ingredients, in the order listed above, in the bread machine, making sure to keep wet ingredients separate from the yeast (added last). Program the bread machine for the 1.5-pound dough cycle. Meanwhile, brush a 15x10x1 metal jelly roll pan with olive oil. Remove the dough from the machine upon completion of the cycle and turn it out onto the prepared pan. Using the heel of your hand, press and flatten the dough to fit the pan. Sprinkle with olive oil and cover gently with plastic wrap, allowing the dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk (about one hour).

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap and gently dimple the dough with your fingertips, sprinkling olive oil and coarse sea salt across the surface. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until nicely browned. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan and cut into squares before serving.

Soft Oatmeal Bread

We eat a lot of peanut butter in our home and for a long time, my husband and I differed on the best bread to use for a quality peanut butter and honey sandwich (yes, we tend toward honey over the more traditional jellies and jams). He argued that soft (nutrition-void) white bread was the best format for peanut butter; I countered that a hearty slice of wheat was a much better option. For me, white bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth just compounds the adhesive qualities of peanut butter; for him, wheat bread was too distinctly flavored to provide a neutral base. Luckily for us, we discovered oatmeal bread a few years ago, which is hearty enough for the sticky goodness of peanut butter but subtly-flavored enough to let the peanut-honey flavor combination take center stage.

I attempted to recreate the standard oatmeal loaf in our bread machine this afternoon, and while the flavor and texture of the interior was pleasant, the crust was too crunchy. A proper oatmeal loaf should have a soft crust that complements the pillowy inside. I reluctantly used the recipe's recommendation for a "dark crust" setting, which delivered a much tougher crust than I prefer. Despite the crunchy outside, it was still pretty tasty and we'll be enjoying some peanut butter and honey sandwiches on thick slices this week.

*OATMEAL BREAD*
Yields one (1) one-pound loaf

Ingredients
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 T maple syrup (or honey)
2 t butter, softened and cubed
1 3/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup oats (I used Quaker Oats)
2 t vital wheat gluten
1 t salt
1 1/4 t yeast

Combine all ingredients, in the order listed above, in the bread machine, making sure to keep wet ingredients separate from the yeast (added last).

I used the white bread program on the darkest crust setting. Next time, I may double the amount of maple syrup and bake it on the lightest crust setting for a slightly sweeter and softer loaf.

Pumpkin Yeast Bread

We love a good loaf of bread in my house, yet I struggle to find high-quality loaves at the grocery that are reasonably priced. Of course, most of my own attempts at bread baking have been a combination of frustration and impatience, fueled by the various iterations of kneading, rising, shaping and browning.

In early December, I resolved that I could save money and bring more variety into our home by baking my own bread. Conveniently, my mom was soliciting holiday gift ideas at the time, so I put a bread machine at the top of our wish list. On Christmas morning, we were thrilled to open the box to our new Cuisinart Automatic Breadmaker (CBK-100 Series) and we've been baking our own bread ever since. With a machine to do almost all of the work for you, bread baking is a *cinch* and delivers a beautifully baked and shaped loaf every time. I still treasure bread prepared the old fashioned way, but in my quest for simplicity and ease, the bread machine wins out.

Without a properly-stocked bread pantry, I opted to use what I had on hand for one of my first loaves, a pumpkin yeast bread. It required only a few ingredients and we were thrilled with the results. The center of the loaf was soft and airy, encased in a slightly crunchy and thin outer crust. The flavor was very subtle; the pumpkin puree added a slight sweetness that made this the perfect loaf for a sandwich of thinly-sliced turkey, provolone, and mayo.

*PUMPKIN YEAST BREAD*
Yields one (1) one-pound loaf

Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 1 T milk
1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
1 T vegetable oil
2 cups bread flour
1 T sugar
3/4 t salt
3/4 t yeast

Combine all ingredients, in the order listed above, in the bread machine, making sure to keep wet ingredients separate from the yeast (added last).

I used the white bread program on the lightest crust setting. Our machine allows the addition of nuts and grains during the kneading cycle so I added some raw pumpkin seeds (also called pepitas) at the designated time, which introduced a nice dimension to an already-great loaf of bread.

(Side note: we are big fans of mayo and often make our own. I know mayo elicits some strong opinions but there's nothing better on a turkey or ham sandwich. We prefer Hellman's Light Mayo, which has the flavor and texture of full-fat mayo but makes us feel a *little* better about eating it).

New Year, New Approach to Food

Cooking at home has been a tremendous part of my life, and my relationships, for years. From my first days of sharing a home and a kitchen with my husband, we have poured hours of thought and time into the preparation of delicious meals for ourselves, our families, and our friends. We love discovering a new ingredient, personalizing a recipe, resurrecting an old favorite, replicating a great restaurant dish, and sharing the bounty of our work at the dining table.

In our first years living together in a small city in the Carolina foothills, we would spend our weeknight evenings, and entire weekends, planning and preparing exciting dishes, using our lack of community in a place that did not suit us culturally as an opportunity to build upon our capacities in the kitchen. Appropriately, we got engaged over a breakfast table filled with poached eggs, wilted spinach, roasted potatoes, fresh oranges, and crispy bacon, all prepared by my husband in our (outdated by generously-sized) kitchen.

In our first years of marriage, living in Brooklyn, NYC, we allowed meal planning to guide our weekend trips all over the city as we sought out exotic spices, specialty cuts of meat, fresh-baked breads, live seafood, and a wide range of produce. We would carry everything home by train and on foot, slung over our shoulders and stuffed into backpacks and we'd let it all spill out onto the counters of our (modern but small) kitchen. Saturday evenings, while the rest of the city hit the town (or so it seemed), we would spend hours preparing our meal for two, deriving as much enjoyment from the process as from the final product.

And then, we had a baby. And then, we moved to North Carolina. And then, ultimately, I returned to the workforce. Since that time, we have had the rare occasion to immerse ourselves in an elegant home-cooked meal. Most of our time in the kitchen is largely dedicated to the same old rotation of quick and easy, predictable meals that yield multiple servings and reheat well. Not very fun to prepare (or to eat, for that matter), but a necessity in reality.

So here we are, early January 2012, and I am ready to bring a little more jazz back into our home dining experience. I am in search of new foods and dishes that can be prepared *in a cinch* and that taste great while offering some nutritional value. The reality is that I am a working parent with a husband who travels frequently, so I am looking to simplify my approach to cooking and baking, while also keeping things exciting and fresh (in both the literal and figurative senses!). I plan to use my slow cooker and my bread maker as a primary focus of this little weblog, but I may share other recipes and home-making notions that make life less complicated and enrich our bellies and our minds.

I hope you'll join me along the way!