Monday Munchies: Rustic Herbed Cheese Bread

It's no secret that I love bread. Love it. There are a lot of bread recipes on here if you go through the archives. And most of them start with the same recipe/method, the no-knead method. This bread is no exception, but the taste is absolutely exceptional! This is a great dinner bread, but I recently served it hollowed out with an herbed sour cream dip as an appetizer and it was phenomenal!

Rustic Herbed Cheese Bread

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 5/8 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
Garlic powder
Sesame seeds
Onion powder
4 ounces sharpest provolone, shredded
Corn meal and additional flour for dusting/shaping


Mix all ingredients but cheese in a large bowl, just until combined. I didn't add the measurements for the spices because I don't measure. I like my breads strongly spiced, so I used approximately half of a small container of sesame seeds, and generous amounts (1 1/2 - 2 1/2 T) of garlic and onion powder.

There is no need to knead or over mix this dough. Simply combine the ingredients and that's it. Cover the bowl (this dough will double in size so make sure your bowl is big enough) and let sit overnight. I let mine sit for at least 12 hours, but have let it sit for 48 hours and the bread still comes out amazing.

After it has sat, place a dishtowel or paper towels in a warm place (I put mine on the stovetop with the oven on) and sprinkle generously with cornmeal. Using only enough flour so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands, ball the dough and place it on the prepared towels. Dust with more cornmeal or flour and cover with another cloth/paper towel. Let rise 1 - 3 more hours, until doubled again in size.

For the last half an hour, place a baking dish (it needs to have a cover) in the oven at 450 degrees to heat up. Turn dough out into the preheated baking dish, cover and bake for approximately 25 - 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15 - 20 minutes until the bread is browned and sounds hollowed when you thump it.


Herbed Sour Cream Dip

Into 16 ounces of sour cream, mix 2T Healing Pixie's bread and cheese herb mix, 1T garlic powder, 1T onion powder and 1T garlic salt. Chill for at least an hour to allow hers to soften and flavors to meld.

Together Tuesday: Jellyfish Flyers

Jellyfish flyers


For this activity you will need 2 circles of clear contact paper, some string, a hole punch and various colors of tissue paper. Cut some of the tissue paper into strips to use as the jelly fish tentacles; tear the rest into small pieces to decorate the jelly fish body. Remove the backing from one of the contact paper circles. Attach the tentacles to the bottom half of the circle. Use the torn tissue paper pieces to decorate the rest of the jelly fish’s body. Cover with the other tissue paper circle. Punch a hole in the top and thread the string though, tying tightly. Bring your jelly fish flyer outside or out to the beach to fly like a kite!



(From Earth*School: Under the Sea, all rights reserved. Copyright Earth*School/Bonnie Vontz 2004 - 2010)

Together Tuesday: May Flowers

It's May and all those April showers should be bringing some beautiful May flowers right about now! And with Mother's Day right around the corner, create some paper flowers with your little ones that will last forever!

You will need:

construction paper in bright colors and green
your child
a pencil
thin dowel rods or chopsticks
green paint
florists tape (or you can use regular tape)
scissors

Start off by having your child paint the chopsticks or dowel rods green for stems. Set aside to dry.
Next, trace your child's hand multiple times on brightly colored paper and cut out the hand shapes. Have your child arrange the hand shapes together to form a flower (bottoms of palms touching, fingers out for the petals). Once the stems are dry, use florists or regular tape to attach the flower to the stem. You can tape the petals together, then tape the stem to the underside of the flower, or you can tape the petals together, punch a hole and stick the stem through the hole and secure with tape.
Cut some leaf shapes from green paper and secure those to the sides of the stems.
Make lots and give a bouquet to grandma or to put in a vase for your dining room table!

Monday Munchies: Deli-Style Rye Bread

We are huge rye bread fans at our house. Our favorite comes from a farm about half an hour away - it is the one thing we will always come home with when we go visit. Or, it was. When I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen last week (one of my favorite food blogs), I knew I had to try it. The results? Fantastic! McKenna even told me it was better than the rye bread we pick up at the farm!

New York Deli Rye Bread
Adapted from The Bread Bible via Smitten Kitchen, cooking process adapted by me

Makes one 1 3/4-pound round loaf

Sponge
3/4 cup (4 ounces, 117 grams) bread flour
3/4 cup (3.3 ounces, 95 grams) rye flour
1/2 teaspoon (1.6 grams) instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon (4.6 grams) malt powder (or barley malt syrup or honey (10.5 grams), or sugar (6.2 grams)) (I use honey)
1 1/2 cups (12.5 ounces, 354 grams) water, at room temperature

Flour Mixture
2 1/4 cups (12.5 ounces, 351 grams) bread flour
1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon (2 grams) instant yeast
2 tablespoons (0.5 ounces, 14 grams) caraway seeds
1/2 tablespoon (0.3 ounces, 10.5 grams) coarse salt

Dough and Baking
1/2 tablespoon (0.25 ounces, 6.7 grams) vegetable oil
about 2 teaspoons (about 0.5 ounces, 16 grams) cornmeal for sprinkling

Make the sponge: Combine sponge ingredients in a large or mixer bowl and whisk until very smooth, to intentionally incorporate air — this will yield a thick batter. Set it aside.

Make the flour mixture and cover the sponge: In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour mixture and gently scoop it over the sponge to cover it completely. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow it to ferment overnight (I generally let my bread dough sit anywhere from 10-18 hours, depending on how much time I have).

Add the oil and mix with dough hook (or by hand). Mix on medium speed for 10 minutes to make a smooth, elastic dough.

Place dough in an oiled bowl and sit in a warm place to rise again, 3-4 hours. The last 30-45 minutes the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 450 degrees, with the baking dish you are going to cook the bread in preheating in the oven as well. I use stoneware/pottery baking dishes - the baking dish needs to have a lid. Once final rise is finished, sprinkle the top of the dough with cornmeal, pull out your baking dish and quickly flip the dough into the heated dish (cornmeal side down), jiggling it to disperse it evenly in the dish. Quickly cover with lid and bake for 20 minutes. Remove lid, reduce heat to 400 degrees, and finish baking another 15-20 minutes until loaf is browned nicely.