TWD: Soda Bread with Kamut Wheat

Irish Soad Bread made with Kamut flour and raisins

Soda bread is fast, foolproof and always rewarding. The pleasure of a slice of plain soda bread all toasty and warm is exceeded only by a slice with butter and jam.

I’ve been making soda bread — traditional as well as gussied up versions — for years. I thought this Baking with Julia recipe by Marion Cunningham was a good time to try a grain that’s new to me: Kamut khorasan wheat.

This is not your typical wheat, but an old-country relative of the everyday variety. Kamut is not the type of wheat, but a registered brand the company says guarantees certain attributes of this special  wheat.

And what are the special attributes? Not only are the grains significantly larger than that of regular wheat, but they carry more nutrients. This is according to plant scientist Robert M. Quinn whose family developed the wheat from a few grains that hitched a ride from Egypt after World War II. If you follow this link to Quinn’s paper, you can read the wheat’s interesting history.

Because Kamut is not particularly high maintenance when it comes to cultivation and thus is quite suitable for sustainable agriculture. It produces a high quality harvest without reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

As for flavor, it bakes up sweeter than traditional whole wheat flour, which as you know can be a tad bitter. Kamut is said to be more easily digested than common wheat, though it does indeed contain gluten and should not be consumed by persons with celiac disease.

It made a fine soda bread. I followed Marion Cunningham’s recipe, substituting whole Kamut flour for all purpose. I also added a handful of raisins soaked in orange juice.

If you’d like to see the recipe, visit our hosts’ blogs: Cathy of My Culinary Mission and Carla of Chocolate Moosey. Check back on April 3 for the next Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

TWD: Baking with Julia - White Loaves

White Loaf for TWD: Baking with Julia

I’m so happy to be joining Tuesdays with Dorie. In the new series some 300 bloggers will explore Baking with Julia, the companion book to Julia Child’s PBS television program that featured guest bakers and their recipes. The book is Dorie Greenspan’s baby in that she wrote introductions to each recipe and edited the entire collection.

We begin with a simple loaf of white bread from chef Craig Kominiak. This is not a flimsy, soft white pillow. It is a sturdy yet tender crumb surrounded by a toothsome crust. A real loaf of bread. We loved it toasted with scrambled eggs piled on top, and it was just right alongside a hearty soup. My husband recommends it with peanut butter.

This is an entirely manageable recipe for busy people. You can prepare and bake this bread all in the span of a few hours. Start at breakfast, have it for lunch. Start at lunch, have it for teatime or supper. Start when you get home from work and it’s done by bedtime. The next morning you have toast for breakfast.

I’ve made the recipe twice already. Once mixed, the dough needs a 45-minute rise. Then you just punch it down, roll into shape and nestle into a buttered loaf pan. Let it rise for another 45 minutes or so. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes and you’re done. Then wait patiently for your reward.

If you’ve always wanted to make your own basic loaf of white bread, now’s a good time to begin. Take a look at the recipe on the blogs of today’s hosts, Laurie at slush and Jules at Someone’s in the Kitchen.

Recipe for Orange and Fennel Bread for #baketogether

An easy bread with fennel seeds, fennel pollen, orange zest and candied peel.

Some days I think bread is my favorite food group.

I was raised on biscuits and cornbread, sometimes both at one meal. We also ate our share of “light bread” — Bunny brand being my favorite — which was used for sandwiches or breakfast toast on the rare occasions when there were no biscuits.

A loaf of light bread was requisite alongside fried fish dinners and take-out barbecued beef. Slices given to children had their crusts discarded while the fluffy white insides were rolled into a ball and eaten.

Because this was the 1970s, whole grain loaves made their way into the pantry and I eventually developed a preference for them, and the more grainy the better. Somewhere along the way, the preponderance of commercial loaves caused us to forget how truly good bread can be.

Enter the bread renaissance at the turn of the 20th Century. From individual kitchens to small businesses to commercial enterprises, Americans have rediscovered bread. And that’s a good thing.

Recipe for Pumpkin Nutmeg Dinner Rolls

Pumpkin Nutmeg Dinner Rolls are perfect for Thanksgiving.

Yeast breads were rarely made at home when I was growing up. Rather, it was cornbread and biscuits that reigned. One or the other would be on the table — and sometimes both depending on the rest of the menu and how many people were gathered round. I don’t recall being taught specifically when to serve cornbread and when to serve biscuits. It’s one of those things you just know, I guess.

But even though the South does tends to be a quick bread region, yeast risen loaves do have their place. We ate commercial sandwich bread (called “light bread” in case you were wondering) because it was absolutely vital for tomato sandwiches. Necessary, too, for peanut butter. (We also ate peanut butter on biscuits, and some in the family even liked it on cornbread.)

Please do not call me a slider.

But for really special meals — such as Thanksgiving — our family would eat those “brown ’n serve” rolls, the ones with the split-top crust. We liked them and they seemed special in the way that store-bought things did at one time. The small package of one dozen rolls didn’t go very far. There were never leftovers.