Paul's Honey Oat Bread
It is election weekend here in Haiti, which means comfort food is definitely in order. While elections anywhere can cause unease, unrest, and extreme emotions, in a country with few peaceful democratic precedents, a mood of wary watchfulness prevails. Back from travels and faced with an empty cupboard and blaring radio, I opted for one of my favorite comfort foods -- fresh baked Honey Oat Bread. This bread is easy to make, and the results are sublime. If you haven't made bread before, this a great place to start. Honey Oat Bread is fantastic as a sandwich base, as french toast, made into bread pudding, dolloped with fresh guava jam, or my personal favorite, smothered with honey and butter.
Yield: 1 large loaf (2 small loaves)
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups milk (slightly warmed, should not feel hot)
- 3/4 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more to shape the loaf)
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon butter (softened)
- 3/4 tablespoons kosher or sea salt (if using table salt, use half this amount)
Steps:
- In a small cup or bowl, mix together milk and yeast and stir to dissolve
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients (flour, oats, honey, butter, and salt) and dump in the milk/yeast mixture. Using your hands (or a mixer if you prefer) fully mix together the ingredients (scrapping down the sides of the bowl to ensure the mixture is fully and evenly mixed). The dough will be very wet and sticky. Don't worry, the oats will soak up a lot of the extra liquid while it rests. Cover and set the dough aside to rise for 2 hours (it will roughly double in size).
- Dump out the dough onto a well-floured work surface (this is most conveniently done on a silicone mat for easy clean up). This stage does not require kneading (as usually defined), but more shaping and stretching as you work in enough flour to make the dough manageable. Working in extra flour as needed, shape the dough into a ball, stretching the top out and back under the loaf each time as you go. Try not to break the top skin as you pull, tuck, and shape the dough. While not full-on kneading, this develops the gluten in the flour, creating the texture and lift you are looking for. Continue shaping and stretching process for 2-3 minutes, working in extra flour to keep it from sticking. The top skin of your dough should be getting smooth but tacky, the bottom will be a bit rough with the tucked in corners pulled from the top. Use as much flour as necessary to be able to work with the dough.
- Shape the loaf into an oblong cylinder and slide it into a standard greased bread pan. Allow the loaf to rise again for 20 minutes while you preheat your oven to 400.
- Right before putting the loaf into the oven, score the top of the loaf with ¼” deep cut lengthwise across the top of the loaf. This is not just decorative, it allows your loaf to rise properly.
- Slide the pan into the oven on the middle rack. Bake 30 minutes (the outside should get deeply browned and the internal temperature reach at least 190 degrees), remove from pan and rest for 20 minutes, slice and eat.
Chewy Coconut Honey Granola
Madeline's grandparents from Indiana arrived for a visit this week. It was lovely support to have in the midst of our coordination and response to Hurricane Mathew. With grandparents here to watch Madeline in the early morning hours, we made a big batch of Chewy Coconut Honey Granola to feed the early risers. This Chewy Coconut Honey Granola is our favorite here in Haiti. It is dead simple to make, and a fantastic balance between sweet and salty with a satisfying chew.
Skillet Mac & Cheese with Rye Bread Crumbs
We've made somewhat of an art form of converting leftover ingredients into individual lunches and sometimes even spunky new dishes, like this comfort classic: Skillet Mac & Cheese with Rye Bread Crumbs. This rye crusted dish is a savory answer to what to do with two-day-old homemade bread: pulse it up, mix in butter, salt and cheese and use it as a flavorful topping. We paired the sour and caraway laced crumbs of homemade sourdough rye bread with a sumptuous homemade macaroni and cheese that Paul whipped up stove-top while the oven preheated. The combination of creamy, subtle local cheeses and pungent crunchy bread crumbs was lovely. We used a 50/50 blend of two local cheeses. One was a mild farmer's cheese, which gave a smooth creaminess to the sauce. The other was a young asiago, which added a subtle nutty sharpness. Feel free to use your favorite cheese, but try to stick with ones that will melt smoothly. It may be spring, but we are are not done with creamy comfort foods yet!
Toasted Oat & Honey Porridge
I crave porridge for breakfast on cold winter days. Growing up, my sister and I ate porridge for breakfast most mornings. At some point along the way, things got a little creative, with my sisters’ addition of chocolate chips to her bowl, and my own garish sprinkle of mouth puckering vitamin C powder to mine. I think you could say that these add-ins remain a fairly accurate representation of our adult taste preferences. When I saw the title ‘very best oatmeal’ in Whole Grain Mornings, I couldn't resist. Our slightly adapted version, Toasted Oat & Honey Porridge, is fantastic and speedy, and I have been obsessively making it on weekdays and weekends for the past month. The texture is incredible, no more gummy, thick porridge. Instead, the technique preserves the shape and texture of the individual oats through a two-step toasting and steaming process that leaves you with a surprisingly soft and chewy texture. We liked that addition of honey for just a hint of sweetness, and a flurry of crunchy almonds and pomegranate seeds to make this into a quick, beautiful, and delicious bowl of porridge.
Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is mine. This Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie combines the luscious butteriness of the classic grandma-style cookie with the chewy texture and nutty flavor of oats and the rich warmth of extra vanilla. While Rebecca (and the health department) may not approve, I'll also share that this dough is almost as good raw, as it is baked! Our recipe is relatively light on chocolate chips, but feel free to amp up the chocolate if you prefer. Treat yourself!
Sourdough Rye
Last year I began the quest for the perfect Reuben sandwich. It was inspired by a visit to Lucky's Cafe in Cleveland. The first aspect to master was a sourdough rye -- hearty yet yielding, sour but with a grainy sweetness, earthy and clean, chewy and light. After over a year of tweaking, I've developed this no-knead continuous-ferment sourdough rye. It builds on the sage sourdough advice of Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice and no-knead approach of Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Here's how I do it...
