Pain Aux Noix

Sounds so fancy doesn't it?

It's French for "Walnut Bread" and let me tell you, it is so good we decimated the first loaf before it was even cool enough to handle! I'm actually going to give you the recipe for this one so if you want to try your hand at it you can. There are many variations of this bread online but this one intrigued me because of the way you brown the butter. As always, I toast and cool the walnuts before adding them to the dough.

Pain Aux Noix

1/4 cup butter

3 cups wholemeal wheat flour

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 TBS brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS instant yeast

1 cup lukewarm milk

1 1/2 cups walnut pieces (toasted!)

Place the butter in a small saucepan and heat until melted and starting to turn brown, then set aside to cool.

Mix the flours, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Mix the yeast into the milk and allow to dissolve; add to the center of the flour.

Add the cool, melted butter to the flour mixture (it should still be in a liquid state). Using your hand, mix the liquids together in the bowl and gradually add in small quanitites of flour to make a moist dough.

Knead on a lightly floured surface for 6-8 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat the top and cover with a lightly oiled piece of clear plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and gently knock back. Press or roll out to flatten and then sprinkle the nuts over the dough. Gently press the nuts into the dough, then roll up jelly roll style. Return to the oiled bowl, recover and allow to rise for 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a lightly oiled surface and divide dough in half. Shape each piece into a ball and place on lightly oiled or well seasoned baking sheets. (Baking stones are perfect for these.) Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Using a sharp knife, slash the top of each loaf 3 times. Bake for about 32 minute4s or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.

~

I will admit that I did this in my Bosch but I typed out the instructions this way in case you don't have a mixer. If you have a Bosch Mixer, knead for 3-5 minutes or until it looks smooth and elastic. If using a Kitchenaid be sure you don't go over speed 2 or you will strip the gears. (Trust me on this one!)

The crust on this loaf was chewy and just a teeny bit crisp but the crumb was so velvety! It made fantastic toast and was awesome with my Tarragon Chicken Salad. I will be making this one again (and again, and again!)

If you don't have access to wholemeal flour I imagine a good quality whole wheat could be used with decent results.

Tomorrow I will have two different sourdough breads to bake, sourdough pancakes and hopefully a sprouted wheat bread will follow shortly. Good thing I have a big freezer!

I gave myself a makeover...

You may have noticed the new look to this blog. I had decided already to do more than just cake here but I decided it needed a new look to go along with the new direction. This blog will reflect whatever I happen to be doing in the area of food.

It could change a lot since I seem to have a two second attention span!

Some of the things I'm dabbling in right now:

Sprouting grains: I've been reading about the nutritional impact sprouted grains can make in your diet. One of the biggest reasons to sprout grain is that it nuetralizes Phytic Acid. Phytic Acid apparently greatly reduces the amount of nutritional value we absorb when we eat grain based foods. Sprouting the grain also converts the grain from a starch to a vegetable and our bodies apparently like that better. (Can I count this toward my veggie servings for the day?) I'm still very new to this whole idea and I'm looking forward to trying some new foods. I have a big bowl of hard white wheat sprouting in my kitchen right now!

Sourdough: I must confess, I am a sourdough killer. I have been given sourdough starts that are already bubbly and active. You would think I'd be able to maintain them and keep them going wouldn't you? Nope. I kill 'em! Apparently you have to feed them regularly or they die. It's along the same lines as houseplants I think. Did you know you are supposed to water your plants or they die too? Who knew! :D

Kids are loud when they haven't been fed. They clamor for something to eat and won't stop until they're chewing. Usually at this time they are shuffling the food around their mouths so they can ask you for a drink of water. Once they've been excused from the table the process starts again.

Immediately and with no break.

Ever!

Well, sourdough doesn't do that so I've decided to utilize my fancy cell phone/pda thingamajiggy and I've set alarms reminding me to feed it. Now I'm really getting into this and I've started the starter myself, from scratch. I was a little unsure about doing this since I've killed so many poor, unsuspecting starters already but I found a great website with lots of beginner info on it.

My starter is about a week old now and it's bubbling happily and will double in size after it's been fed. From what I've read this means it's a happy, thriving starter and ready to use.

Deep breath! Now it's time to actually bake something! Hopefully this afternoon I'll give it a go and see if I can't make a successful sourdough loaf. Oh, the website for the sourdough info is Sourdough Home.

Artisan Breads: My mom gave me a beautiful book on breads from around the world. Not only does it have recipes but it also has a history of bread, lists various flour types, leavening agents, and has gorgeous pictures of bread from all over the world. (I read cookbooks like they're novels.)

I have made a few recipes from the book already but unfortunately did think to take a picture before we devoured them.

The first one I made was Portuguese Cornbread. This was far different than any cornbread I've ever had but it was sooooo good! The whole family loved it. It's a yeasted bread that begins with a sponge then is given a couple of slow rises. The result is a nice outer crust with a melt in your mouth crumb inside. The flavor is very complex and tasty. It probably helps that I mill all my own flour, including things like cornmeal. This bread can easily stand alone for flavor but we also enjoyed it with Ham and Bean soup. (Actually, it was pretty darn good with scrambled eggs too!)

Next I did an Onion Cheesebread that was out of this world good! Mmmmm, you saute the onions first so they are nice and soft. Then you blend them into the dough along with some cheese. After all of the rising and shaping everything is nicely blended together for a very soft, tender bread that is full of flavor. It was perfect with a nice bowl of soup.

Tomorrow I will post the recipe and pictures of Pain Aux Noir, a french walnut bread that I just made. This one was fabulous!

I'm starting to think there are very few breads I don't like! :P

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Since most people know that I love to bake I've become some sort of clearinghouse for their unused/unwanted bakeware type stuff. While cleaning the garage the other day I came across a bundt pan that I didn't know I had. It seems like a nice quality pan, heavy with a nonstick finish and a simple but pretty design.

Funny, I've often thought it would be nice to have one!

Well of course after finding the pan I was dying to bake something in it and this being fall it was a given that it would be something pumpkin. I searched around a little bit and found a recipe but the pan sat on the counter for a few days before I finally got to it.

Since I didn't go to Tae Kwon Do tonight (shin splints, ouch!) I took the opportunity to bake one up and bless my sweet husband. The whole family loved it judging by all the "mmmmmm's" going on around the table. And the bonus was, my house smells great!

Here's the recipe in case you want to give it a try. If you don't have a bundt pan you can do the recipe in a 9x13 but you will need to reduce the baking time quite a bit. I would start checking at about 20-25 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs. The recipe is for a 12 cup bundt pan. A 9x13 pan will hold 14 and a 9x9 pan will hold ten. The other option is two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 loaf pans. They each hold six cups so you will get two loaves.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake
3 large eggs
1 15-oz can pumpkin (not pie filling)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup raisins*
1/2 - 1 cup chopped toasted nuts*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or spray a Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the 3 eggs,pumpkin, oil and water until smooth.

Add flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Stir in raisins and nuts, if using.

Pour into pan, bake 65 - 75 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, let cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

*Now you know I always toast the nuts before I put them into anything! You don't have to but it's my preference. I skipped the raisins but you may like them. (Another little tip for you; when you're using raisins in a recipe soak them in the egg mixture for about an hour before you mix up your batter. This makes the raisins beautifully soft in your baked item. Once you try this you will never make an oatmeal cookie without soaking the raisins first! )

I actually made a powdered sugar glaze but I stirred in about 1/3 cup melted cinnamon chips. I found it got a bit coagulated because the glaze cooled the cinnamon chips before it could come together. Since I have my handy, dandy Vitamix blender I threw it in there and it was smooth as silk when it was done. I poured it right out of the blender onto the cake. Mmmmmmm....

Everybody was Kungfu Fighting...

Okay, so they're not KungFu, they're actually TaeKwonDo cookies. Or TaeKwoncookies as my kids were calling them. Baking is like therapy for me and I needed some but I didn't want to eat them all so we took them to our TaeKwonDo class tonight. They were very appreciated. :D In fact, our teacher said they were the coolest cookies he's ever seen (and he didn't kill me with the workout so buttering him up seemed to work! lol)

I went online and found two pictures I liked of guys doing TKD and printed them out. Then Jon shaped copper ribbon using two nails pounded into a board. He used the pictures as his guide (and did a fabulous job I must say! :D ) You can't see it because I've only posted two pictures but I did some with a yellow belt, some blue, some brown and some black. I skipped purple because no one in our class has a purple belt at the moment but all the other colors are represented. Mines a boring old white belt since I've just started but at least I got to eat a cookie without guilt!

Who would like a cookie?

Well, since I love baking so much (it's kind of like therapy for me) this blog will probably be more than just cake. Here is a recipe for my favorite fall cookies. They are the first pumpking cookie I've actually liked. I wish I didn't like them so much because cookie therapy is very expensive for your waistline!

Harvest Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin cookies with toasted walnuts and white chocolate

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup toasted walnuts*

1 cup white chocolate chips

*I toast my walnuts in a cast iron pan on my stovetop. It's not necessary to toast the nuts first but the flavor is so exceptional that I take the time to do the extra step. If you toast them first they will cool by the time you're ready to add them. *

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and allspice together in a large bowl; set aside. In a mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add the egg, pumpkin and vanilla and continue beating until creamy. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and beat on medium until all ingredients are incorporated. Stir in walnuts and chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet spaced about 2" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for one minute before removing.

I really like spicy cookies so I always add a bit extra cinnamon and allspice. I also use a heavy hand on the chips and nuts because I like a lot of texture to my cookies. These are also good made with whole wheat flour. A variation is toasted pecans with dried cranberries.

Happy Birthday Cora!!

Well as usual I got to make Cora's birthday cake and as usual she wanted a chocolate cake with raspberry filling. Her cake was Chocolate with raspberry moistening syrup, bittersweet chocolate ganache, raspberry preserves and milk chocolate IMBC frosting.


Being that this is Cora a flowery, girly cake just wasn't going to do. Since she's such a baseball fanatic I decided to go with a baseball theme. Especially since the season is almost over and she'll be in mourning (well, at least until she puts the football game on! :) )


Here's her cake: Play Ball!

Hawley-Cox Wedding Cake

I finished the last one for this summer! This one is very similar to the very first cake I did and I still like it! :) Chocolate cake with white chocolate filling and creme de cocoa flavored moistening syrup.

Karissa's Cake

Well, here's the latest. Krystina did the flowers and they were gorgeous! (I just stuck them on the cake.) Buttercream frosting with fondant accents. This thing took forever and I almost decided I was done with making cakes! Of course I couldn't quit because I have another one at the end of the month but the thought did cross my mind! :D