Stuffing Bread with Dried Cranberries

The perfect bread for turkey sandwiches or to use for stuffing, this tender flavorful loaf also slices up beautifully for Thanksgiving breakfast toast that hints of the delicious dinner to come later.

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that I like to bake bread. I love the smell of the yeast as it comes back to life in a little warm water. I love the heft of an enriched dough as I knead it and the springy bounce as I spin it in the oiled bowl of my mixer in preparation for the first rise. But the very best part of baking bread is the way the whole house smells as the bread bakes. When my girls were still living at home, nothing brought them out of their rooms and downstairs faster than the aroma of bread in the oven. Well, and the eating, of course!

But I understand that not everyone feels they have time to bake bread. So it is my great pleasure to introduce you to a book that solves the “no time to bake” problem. Make Ahead Bread divides the process into manageable parts, allowing you to make the dough ahead of time and leave it in the refrigerator overnight or even for a day or two, depending on the recipe, until you are ready to bake and enjoy.

Make Ahead Bread was written by the witty and knowledgeable Donna Currie of Cookistry, a blog you might already be familiar with. If you aren’t, do go over and say howdy. Donna never fails to crack me up with her quips and I often had to watch that I didn’t have a mouthful of coffee in the morning when she shared the antics of her husband, Bob, because he could make me snort coffee out of my nose. Sadly, Bob passed away suddenly just a few weeks ago. In typical food blogger fashion, a group of us decided we’d honor his memory by helping Donna promote her bread book, a project he deeply supported, as he did all of Donna’s endeavors, hopefully sending a few customers her way through the power of social media.

I’m not just recommending this book to be nice though. I really love it! I am quite the cookbook junkie but I’d like to tell you that this was THE ONLY cookbook I asked for for my birthday this year! Yep, it’s that special. I was so delighted when my mom arrived in Dubai with Make Ahead Bread that I couldn’t help but share a photo of me and it on Facebook.

I haven’t shared recipes from it before now but I have special permission from Donna to share this one and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! You can get your own copy of Make Ahead Bread at better bookstores as well as on Amazon.com.*

This recipe is from Make Ahead Bread – 100 Recipes for Melt-in-Your-Mouth Fresh Bread Every Day © Donna Currie. Used by permission. (I’ve added the metric adaptations.)

Ingredients
1 cup or 240ml lukewarm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 ounces) or 318g bread flour
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried chives
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup or 35g dried cranberries
Non-stick baking spray (the kind with flour in it)

Note: I had to subsitute fresh herbs so I doubled the amount since dried herbs are always stronger in flavor than fresh. Another confession, I wasn’t reading with my cheater glasses so I thought it was 1 tablespoon of both parsley and chives. I don’t think the extra chives were a bad thing though since I’m a fan.

On Prep Day
1. Combine all the ingredients and knead by hand (mix first in a large bowl, then turn out and knead) or in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, until dough is elastic.

2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or place it in a large plastic bag and seal the ends. Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.

Going into the refrigerator.

The next day after a long, slow rise in the cold. 

On Baking Day
1. Spray the 9x5-in or approx. 23x13cm bread pan with baking spray. (I also chose to line the pan with parchment for easy clean up, something Donna mentions in the introductory part of her book as an option.)

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a rough 8 in or 20cm square. Fold the top half to about the middle of the dough and press the edge down to secure it. Fold the top over again, this time to within about an inch or so of the bottom. Press the edge to deal. Now pull the bottom of the dough up to meet the dough roll you‘ve created and seal the seam. Pinch the ends closed and place the dough, seam side down, in the prepared pan.

3. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and set aside to rise. The dough is ready when it has risen about an inch or 2 centimeters over the top of the pan, about 1 hour in a warm room.

4. About 30 minutes before the loaf is fully risen, heat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

5. When the dough has risen, remove the plastic. Bake until the bread is richly browned and the internal temperature of the loaf reaches 195°F or °90.5C on an instant read thermometer, about 55 minutes. Remove the bread form the pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Enjoy!

The hardest part of this whole recipe? Finding space for the dough bowl in my ridiculously overstuffed refrigerator.

Make this bread. Buy Make Ahead Bread.* You won’t be sorry!

Check out the fabulous list of breads we've baked for Donna from her book:

• Blueberry & Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest from Meghan of Clean Eats, Fast Feets
• Buttermilk Rolls from Renee of Magnolia Days 
• Cinnamon Rolls from Sandra of Dear Lauren Love Mom 
• Pizza Bread from Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories 
• Pumpkin Yeast Bread from Faith of An Edible Mosaic 
• Sesame Seeded Semolina Bread from Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories 
• Sourdough English Muffins from Alisa of Go Dairy Free 
• Stuffing Bread with Dried Cranberries from Stacy of Food Lust People Love 
• Sweet Potato Monkey Bread from Kirsten of Farm Fresh Feasts 
• Sweet Potato Monkey Bread from Renee of Magnolia Days 
• Sweet Potato Monkey Bread from Laura of Mother Would Know 
• Whole Wheat Pita from Jenni of Pastry Chef Online 
• Whole Wheat and Parmesan Pizza Crust from Kirsten of Farm Fresh Feasts

UPDATE: Win your own copy of Make Ahead Bread! 

Follow this link to enter: http://bit.ly/1MHXidM

*Affiliate links.

Bulgur Wheat Bread #BreadBakers

A tender loaf with a welcome bit of nutty chewiness from the bulgur wheat, this yeast bread has a soft crust and slices up beautifully.

As much as my grandmothers loved cooking and even baking, I don’t remember either of them ever baking bread. The French influence in our Louisiana heritage did mean that bread was important; you just bought it at a bakery. From the time I was tiny my mom told me stories of when she was younger and she would bring a stick of butter along to the bakery to pick up a fresh hot loaf just so she could butter the bread and eat it immediately in the car. Who wants to wait? The only bread I remember in our house when I was growing up was white sandwich bread and French bread – still white inside – preferably baked by the southern Louisiana institutions of Evangeline Maid in Lafayette and LeJeune’s in Jeanerette, respectively. Even today, my mom’s freezer in Houston usually has a loaf or two of LeJeune’s delicious French bread, still made by hand, for when she needs a bread and butter fix.

When I started dating my husband and was introduced to his dad and stepmom, I finally met a woman who baked bread weekly, more often that that, in fact, if she had bread loving visitors (like us!) because her home-baked bread was the centerpiece of every lunch, surrounded by cheese and sliced meat and condiments and salad. And breakfast, more often than not, included toast. I wrote at length about Fiona’s wonderful bread for the inaugural post of Bread Bakers exactly one year ago, so I won’t go into it again here, except to say that hers was also the first time I remember eating and loving whole wheat bread instead of white. She started me on the road to baking my own bread and even buying whole grain breads. They are just so much more flavorful! (Although it's still hard to beat a pimento cheese sandwich on Evangeline Maid.)

This month our Bread Bakers challenge to bake bread with whole grains was set by our able host of Cali’s Cuisine. I decided to kick mine up a notch by adding bulgur wheat as well. It was a very good decision. This recipe, adapted from one in the New York Times online, makes two nutty deliciously healthy loaves and freezes beautifully.

N.B. You'll need three and a half hours of resting or rising time, in addition to almost one hour baking so start early in your day!

Ingredients - for two standard loaves
For the sponge:
2 packets active dry yeast (1/2 oz or 14g total)
3 cups or 710ml warm water
3 tablespoons mild honey
1 cup or 200g coarse bulgur wheat
2 cups or 250g strong white bread flour
1 cup or 120g wholemeal bread flour

For the bread dough:
1 bread sponge recipe (see above)
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil, plus a little extra for oiling bowl and baking pans
1 scant tablespoon salt
2 cups or 240g wholemeal bread flour, plus additional as necessary for kneading

Method
In a large bowl, combine the yeast and warm water and honey, and stir until dissolved. Leave it for a couple of minutes to make sure that the yeast is reacting and making some small bubbles before proceeding.

Add in the bulgur wheat and leave to rest again for another five or so minutes.

Now whisk in the white bread flour and the wholemeal bread flour one cup at a time. Keep stirring or whisking for at least two minutes after all three cups have been added. You'll end up with quite a thick batter.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and cover it with cling film. Leave to rest in a warm spot for one hour. It should bubble up quite dramatically.

Fold the oil into the sponge along with the salt and then fold in one cup of the wholemeal bread flour.

Sprinkle your clean work surface with flour from the second cup of wholemeal bread flour and scrape the dough out of the bowl.

Here’s where it gets sticky. I found that using a stainless steel dough scraper really helped with this part of the process.

Sprinkle the dough with more wholemeal bread flour. Use your scraper to turn and fold and “knead” the dough, until the last of the cup has been added.

Keep folding and kneading for about 10 minutes, adding just a little more flour as needed, until the dough springs back when you press it with a finger. It will still be quite sticky.

Wash out your bowl and grease the inside with a little canola oil.

Scrape the dough into the bowl and turn it over to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl again with cling film and leave in a warm place for one hour.

Punch the dough down, cover it again and leave to rise for another hour.

Grease two bread loaf pans. Divide the dough into two equal parts and place them in the greased pans. Sprinkle with some wholemeal bread flour and put them in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C at some point in that 30 minutes. Mine takes forever to get to temperature so I start about 10 minutes in. You do what you need to do.

When your 30 minutes are up and your oven is preheated properly, cut some quick slashes in the dough with a very sharp implement.

Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190°F or 88°C on an instant read thermometer or the top is golden and the loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Allow to cool for a few minutes and then remove the loaves from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

More whole grain goodness from my fellow Bread Bakers:

• Bublik - Russian Bagels from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Bulgur Wheat Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Cilantro and Garlic Oat Bread from Simply Veggies
• Corn Pizza on Multigrain Crust from Cook's Hideout
• Gluten Free Honey Oat Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Kitchen Sink Bread from What Smells So Good?
• Multigrain Country Bread from La cocina de Aisha
• Potato Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls from Passion Kneaded
• Rosemary, Garlic, and Parsley Whole Wheat Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tomato and Rosemary Einkorn Focaccia Rounds from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Whole Grain Maple Oat Scones from Cali's Cuisine
• Whole Grain Oatmeal Blueberry Banana Bread from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Whole Grain Zucchini Macadamia Bread from The Schizo Chef
• Whole Wheat English Muffins from Spill the Spices
• Whole Wheat Date Nut Bread from Magnolia Days
• Whole Wheat Naan from Spice Roots

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

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Oatmeal Stout Loaf #BreadBakers

The dark brown sugar and rich oatmeal stout give this loaf more than a subtle sweetness, making it perfect for breakfast or slathered with butter for a mid-morning snack. It's delicious plain or toasted and is complemented both by jam or/and some sharp and salty cheese.

One of my favorite places to browse around in Houston is the main headquarters of an immense gourmet specialties and liquor store called Spec’s, sitting large on three blocks (with ample parking) in an area that is now called Midtown. When I was growing up, we’d have just said, it’s a little south of Downtown. Back then the neighborhood was all run-down wood framed houses, with peeling paint, sagging front porches and inhabitants whose equally downturned expressions reflected the hardship of life in a big hot, humid city where air conditioning was too expensive to run. And Spec’s was just a small neighborhood liquor store. The nearest grocery store was a Fiesta at least a mile and a half away at the squalid south edge, wedged almost under a freeway, between that end of south Downtown and the seedy north end of Montrose, what would later become part of the Museum District.

Now Midtown boasts shiny apartment buildings with faux balconies, grocery stores, trendy restaurants and fern-festooned wine bars and property values have soared accordingly. I don’t know if this was good or bad news for the original folks who lived there but it’s certainly a sign of prosperity and renewal for Houston’s inner city.

A number of years ago, Spec’s even started carrying a selection of deli meats and cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables along with fresh baked artisanal bread and some refrigerated items, along with the gourmet canned goods, liquor, wine and beer, so I guess, theoretically, you could do a lot of your shopping there, assuming your food budget would allow such expenditure. I understand they even serve a plate lunch come midday. Me, I go for the cheese and alcohol.

You are probably wondering at this point when, if ever, I’m going to get to the bread. Almost there now.

My libation of choice this summer was a cocktail, yet unnamed, consisting of the delicious combination of Texas’ own Deep Eddy Ruby Red vodka, a good squeeze of lime, club soda and just a capful of Campari over ice. And I can highly recommend it. But while I was at Spec’s buying those refreshing ingredients, I spied some bottles of oatmeal stout and my mind jumped ahead to this month’s Bread Bakers theme of oats. Unfortunately for that brand, it came only in six packs. A helpful Spec’s employee – they are everywhere and very knowledgeable – found this Texas-brewed one for me instead, saying it was actually much better than my first pick anyway. The Convict Hill oatmeal stout has overtones of chocolate and toasted barley, the bitterness softened by the addition of flakey oats. And I knew it would be a great addition to an oaty yeast loaf.

Many thanks to our host this month, Rocío from kidsandchic. We have a record number of oaty breads for you this month – 28 in all – so make sure to scroll down and check them all out.

Ingredients
1/4 oz or 7g active rapid rise dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup firmly packed or 100g dark brown sugar
1 cup or 100g quick cook whole grain oats
1 1/4 cups or 295ml oatmeal stout, at room temperature
1/4 cup or 60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for buttering pan
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups or 310-375g unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading

To finish:
2-3 tablespoons oatmeal stout
Healthy sprinkle quick cook whole grain oats

Method
In a small bowl, add your yeast with one tablespoon of the brown sugar and the two tablespoons of warm water. Stir gently then leave aside for about five minutes. We are checking to see that the yeast is still alive. It should bubble up and get foamy. If it doesn’t, buy some new yeast and start again.

Foamy and we are good to go!

To a very large mixing bowl, add the oatmeal and the oatmeal stout. Stir well and leave for about five minutes so the oatmeal can soften slightly.

Add in the rest of the brown sugar, the yeast mixture, melted butter and the salt and stir well to combine.

Add in your flour a few big spoons full at a time, mixing well in between. Keep adding and mixing until you have a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about five minutes, adding a sprinkle of flour as necessary.

Let rest, covered with an inverted bowl, about 15 minutes. If you aren’t using the rapid rise yeast, allow to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Butter your 9x5x3 in or 23x13x8cm loaf pan. Form dough into a loaf shape and transfer to pan. Brush surface of dough with oatmeal stout and sprinkle with oats.

Let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake bread in middle of oven 45 to 50 minutes, or until browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped. If it’s browning too quickly, cover with foil. I usually double check for doneness with a thermometer as well. Internal loaf temperature should be about 190°F or 88°C.

Turn loaf out onto rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

And here I give you our Bread Bakers' Ode to Oats, in 28 lines.

• Agave Oatmeal Sour Dough Bread from My Catholic Kitchen
• Applesauce Oatmeal Bread from Hostess at Heart
• Banana Oatmeal Loaf from Basic N Delicious
• Blueberry Currant Oatmeal Bread from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Honey Oatmeal Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Honey Oatmeal Bread from Recipes, Food and Cooking
• Honey-Oatmeal Muffins from A Baker's House
• Honey Oats Bread Loaf from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Honey Nut Oatmeal Waffles from Magnolia Days
• Honey Wheat Oat Bread from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Irish Oat and Whole Wheat Bread from Cali's Cuisine
• Lemon Blueberry Oat Bread from Kids & Chic
• Multigrain Twist Bread from What Smells So Good?
• Oat Breadsticks from Passion Kneaded
• Oatmeal and Whole Wheat Rolls from Sneha's Recipe
• Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread from Ruchik Randhap
• Oatmeal Porridge Sandwich Loaf from Bakers and Best
• Oatmeal Stout Loaf from Food Lust People Love
• Oat & Honey Bread from La Cocina de Aisha
• Oats and Millet Idli from Spice Roots
• Oats Bread with Maple and Walnut by Cook's Hideout
• Oats Garlic Kulcha from SimplyVeggies
• Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips Oatmeal Scones from G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Rolled Oat Sourdough Boule from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Savory Oats Scones from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Triple Seeded Oat Bread from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Whole Wheat Honey Oatmeal Bread from Spill the Spices

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: No one has compensated me in any way to say nice things about Spec's. I just like the place.

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Chickpea Moroccan Bread #BreadBakers

Cumin, kalongi and chickpeas add a lovely spicy heartiness to these tender, fluffy flatbreads. They are fabulous on their own or will happily accompany most any savory meal.

I am sure it happens in every family. A new favorite recipe is somehow discovered and is made again and again. Then, over time, it is forgotten until a conversation sparks a memory and you think, “Hey, remember that baked Camembert dish we used to make?”  We loved that dish! And you need to make it again. This month’s Bread Bakers theme, yeasty flatbreads, had that effect on me. I scoured the internet for inspiration and even found several recipes I would have loved to adapt and share, then I suddenly remember this one and had to make it again.

It’s been more than 15 years since Jamie Oliver’s second book, The Naked Chef Takes Off* was published but I still refer to it very occasionally for a couple of recipes, including the one he calls Chickpea Moroccan Flatbread. I have no idea whether actual Moroccans would recognize the recipe or make anything similar but I can tell you that it’s delicious. Over the years I’ve adapted it slightly, sometimes also adding fresh chopped chilies along with the chickpeas, varying the spices or brushing the finished flatbreads with melted butter. I can highly recommend those modifications. This bread is quick to make, needing only one rise, and adapts beautifully to whatever you want to throw in it.

Ingredients
4 cups or 500g strong bread flour plus extra for dusting
1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups or 300-360ml tepid water
1 (1/4 oz or 7g) sachet dried yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup or 130g cooked chickpeas (I use drained and rinsed canned ones most often but you can cook your own.)
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons kalongi (also know as nigella seeds) Jamie’s version calls for coriander.
1 teaspoon canola or other light oil
1/4 cup or 60g butter, melted and cooled

Method
Combine your yeast and sugar and add in about half a cup or 120ml of the tepid water. Leave to prove while you get on with the recipe. You are looking for the mixture to bubble up and become foamy. If it does not, your yeast is dead. Buy some new yeast and start over.

Mash your chickpeas roughly with a fork. No need to remove the skins.

Add your flour and salt to a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.

Pour the yeast mixture into the well. Sprinkle on your cumin and nigella seeds then add in the mashed chickpeas.

Start mixing the flour and chickpeas into the yeasty water in the middle, a little at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Add the rest of the water a little at a time, mixing more flour in as you go, until you have a homogenous dough.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is stretchy and springy, dusting with a little more flour as necessary. Form the dough into a smooth ball.

Oil the inside of a large bowl with the canola oil and put the dough ball inside. Slash the top with a lame or sharp knife to allow the dough to rise with ease.

Cover it with some cling film or a towel and put it in a warm, draft free place for at least half an hour.

When you are ready to griddle your chickpea flatbreads, punch the risen dough down and cut it into seven or eight pieces.

Start heating your iron griddle or heavy duty skillet and, on a lightly floured surface, roll the first ball out thinly with a rolling pin.

When the griddle is hot, lay the rolled dough on it, being careful not to touch the griddle and burn yourself. Cook on one side until little brown spots and bubbles appear and the dough releases itself from the griddle.

Turn and griddle on the other side until done.

This takes just a couple of minutes on each side.

Meanwhile, roll out the next dough ball into a circle in readiness.

Remove the cooked flatbread to a plate and brush both sides with the melted butter. Keep warm while you cook the rest.

Add the next flatbread to the hot griddle and repeat process until all the flatbreads are cooked and brushed with butter.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Bread Bakers host this month, Mireille of The Schizo Chef. I am delighted to be making one of my old favorite recipes to share for this fun yeasty flatbread event! Have a look at all the other wonderful flatbreads we’ve got for you today!

• Chickpea Moroccan Bread by Food Lust People Love
• Emirati Khameer by The Schizo Chef
• Focaccia by Simply Veggies
• Garlic Naan by Seduce Your Tastebuds
• Grilled Bacon Onion Cheese Flatbread (Flammkuchen) by Magnolia Days
• Grilled Naan by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Homemade Naan by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Hönökaka - Swedish Flatbread by Passion Kneaded
• Kesra - Moroccan Flatbread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Man'oushe - Lebanese Flatbread by A Shaggy Dough Story
• Margherita-Style Grilled Flatbread by Cali's Cuisine
• Orange Herb Pitas by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Paneer Kulcha by I Camp in my Kitchen
• Roghni Roti by Sneha's Recipe
• Sausage Gravy Pizza with Peppers and Onions by Pastry Chef Online
• Simple Pita Bread by A Baker's House
• Spelt Biskers by What Smells So Good?
• Tigelle - Italian Flat Bread by Cooking Club
• Whole Wheat Pita Bread by G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Za'atar & Cheese Manakish - Levantine Flatbread by Ruchik Randhap
• Za'atar Spiced Khobez by Cook's Hideout

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here.

Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com



* Affiliate link