Mango Bread

I stumbled over this recipe when I was looking for something to bring to a breakfast. It is a quick bread from Dorie Greenspan and when I read the recipe it sounded like just the right thing to bring. It is a quick batter with pieces of juicy Mango, Golden Raisins, Cinnamon and Ginger. When it came out of the oven my kitchen smelled wonderful like fall and cinnamon. It tasted even better the next day and was just the right thing to bring to the breakfast.

Mango Bread

Source: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower oil
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 2 cups diced mango (from 1 large peeled and pitted mango)
• 3/4 cup moist, plump golden raisins (omitted)
• Grated zest of 1/2 a lime

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place a rack in the center notch. Also, butter and flour a standard bread loaf pan and place the loaf pan on a cookie sheet. Since the bread will be baking for a long time, the cookie sheet will act as an insulator to prevent the bottom of the bread from burning.
2. Whisk the eggs and oil together in a mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Rub the brown sugar between your hands to ensure there are no lumps and add to the dry mixture.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry, and using a sturdy spoon or spatula, mix the dough. Just to note, this dough will seem very thick, so you just have to keep mixing and it will get a little more manageable to work with.
4. Stir in the mango, raisins and zest until just incorporated and spoon the dough into your loaf pan. Spread the dough evenly.
5. Bake the bread for 1 1/2 hours. Check the bread ever so often to make sure the top isn’t getting too brown. If it is, just place some foil over the bread for the remaining part of the baking.
6. When finished baking, allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then take the bread out of the loaf pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Couronne Bread Ring

In general, I bake all my bread myself but I barely blog about it. Mainly because I change my recipes all the time and never write down what I did.  However, I have to show you this one. It really deserves to be here. Just because it is so pretty and also easy. I made the very simplest bread dough and let it sit over night. The next day I followed the directions on this webpage and this is how it looked.

Couronne Bordelaise

Dough
460 g/16.22 oz bread flour or all-purpose flour
300 g/10.58 oz water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast

Directions


Go to this webpage for directions with video

Whole Wheat Ginger Scones

I fell in love with Scones the first time I visited Great Britain.  We where sitting in a cute little teahouse, where everything was antique and for sale, even the chairs we were sitting on. We ordered Scones, not knowing what it was and received this buttery pastry served with a dollop of clotted cream and home made jam. Yum! I was only 16 back at that time. When I looked for a recipe I could only find something that involved self raising flour. Not available or even known in Germany at that time. So I forgot about them until I came here and saw self raising flour in every supermarket. Ever since then I bake scones and love them and bake them and love them - even without self raising flour. This recipe is a Whole Wheat Scone with pieces of crystallized Ginger and Nutmeg. Did I mention that I love Ginger? I think the combination is fantastic and the scone is even better with the homemade Pineapple-Pear Preserves from Sarabeth Levine. I had to make the preserves too, off course.

WHOLE-WHEAT GINGER SCONES 

(from Sarabeth Levine)

Makes approximately 16 scones 

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon whole milk

2 large eggs, chilled

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat stone ground flour

1 tablespoon plus 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons superfine sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

A few gratings of fresh nutmeg

10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½-inch cubes

1/3 cup (3 ounces) crystallized ginger, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

1 large egg, well beaten with a hand blender, for glazing 

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 425°F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. TO MAKE THE DOUGH BY HAND: Whisk the milk, 2 eggs , and vanilla seeds together in a small bowl; set aside. Sift the flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix quickly to coat the butter with the flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour, scraping the butter off the blender as needed, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs with some pea-size pieces of butter. Mix in the ginger. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the milk mixture and mix just until the dough clumps together.

TO USE A MIXER: Whisk the milk, 2 eggs, and vanilla seeds together in a small bowl; set aside. Sift the dry ingredients together into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Add the butter. Attach the bowl to the mixer and fit with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until the mixture looks mealy with some pea-size bits of butter. Mix in the ginger. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the milk mixture, mixing just until the dough barely comes together.

3. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of flour on top. Knead the dough a few times, just until it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Do not overwork the dough. The surface will be floured, but the inside of the dough should remain on the wet side. Gently roll out the dough into a ¾-inch-thick round.

4. Using a 2 1/4-inch biscuit cutter, dipping the cutter into flour between cuts, cut out the scones (cut straight down and do not twist the cutter) and place 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared half-sheet pan. To get the most biscuits out of the dough, cut out the scones close together in concentric circles. Gather up the dough scraps, knead very lightly, and repeat to cut out more scones. Brush the tops of the scones lightly with the beaten egg, being sure not to let the egg drip down the sides (which would inhibit a good rise).

5. Place the scones in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 400°F. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Cool on the pan for a few minutes, then serve warm or cool completely.

Whole Wheat English Muffins

I am always looking for recipes that use more whole wheat flour than white flour and was very glad when I found this muffin recipe.  I love English Muffins and was eager to try it out as soon as possible.
It didn't disappoint me at all. The muffins are a little bit more on the dense side due to the 100 % Whole Wheat flour and if you don't like that just replace some of the whole wheat flour with white flour. Otherwise they were perfect. Easy to make and they freeze very well. My son remarked that he thinks they would taste very well as a school snack with some Nutella ;-)

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• Whole Wheat Muffins
• (adapted from lifeinrecipes)
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• Ingredients
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• ¼ cup warm water
• 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• ⅔ cup milk
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour

Begin by dissolving the yeast in 1/4 cup water.

 In a large bowl, combine next four ingredients. Add dissolved yeast and 2 cups flour. Stir to combine, cover and let sit for at least an hour. It will expand in volume and become very bubbly.

2.
Add the butter and begin working in the remaining flour.
(My dough was very soft so I added a little bit more flower until it came together and you are able to roll it out on a floured surface).

3.
Roll the dough out to about 1/2 an inch and cut with a three-inch diameter cutter. Place the rounds onto a foil-lined greased baking sheet and allow to rise another 15 minutes or so. They will almost double in volume in this time.

Preheat your oven to 350F

4.
 Cook them on a griddle or in a non-stick or cast-iron skillet on med-low 5 min each side. You will be amazed as you watch them cook and rise before your very eyes - it's like magic.

5.
Let them brown thoroughly on the first side before flipping them to the second side. They will continue to rise after you've flipped them over. I estimate that they become 3 to 4 times thicker as they cook. I love watching them grow!

6. You will need to put them back on the baking sheet and into a 350F oven for about 5 - 7 minutes longer to finish cooking.