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Last weekend a friend stopped by and since I was busy baking bread, my friend offered to take Mo for the special treat of a walk on his beach! Oh how Mo loves the beach. The sights the sounds, the smells---so exciting!
Another afternoon the groomer and her spa van arrived to bathe and pamper Mo. I love his scarves, this one is soft warm flannel.
Mo loves the chicken jerky treat he receives only from Sherry on bath days.
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Meanwhile, back in the kitchen I was making Cider Bread.
I used the Dutch oven/ no knead method. Recipe and instructions HERE I followed the four ingredient recipe but experimented with different ingredients. We recently bought cider bread at the farmers market and really loved it, so when I was left with an half full jug of cider last week, I decided to try to make it myself. Lucky for me the farmers market baker had been interviewed online and she described how she made her version.
I used 2 Cups of bread flour and 1 Cup of rye flour; instead of lukewarm water, I used the leftover cider, heated to lukewarm in the microwave.
Used the dutch oven, high heat, and parchment paper described in the recipe's blogpost.
Second tloaf I added dried cranberries.
Both loaves were delicious! I did note that Red Star yeast makes a higher stronger loaf, whereas the Fleischmann's yeast makes a spreading softer dough. But both loaves were delicious and warmed the frigid house during last week's high winds [again!] and deep freeze.
I hope you'll try this easy bread making method. Only notes to add are
1-the baking time should be shorter, at least for my oven. 35 minutes, no lid removed open baking times, so watch your baking time carefully.
2-This would be a fun baking project to do SUPERVISED, with kids. The dutch oven and lid are massively hot at 450 * and are also heavy. Not safe for kids to lift.
3- The loaf's rise time is very long, you must plan ahead to be ready for the finishing, resting, and baking times. The dough can rise for 8 to 18 hours, so either start it early in the AM or do as I do and start it late the night before, then bake early afternoon the next day; or late afternoon for warm bread with dinner.
4-If you prefer a chewy crust instead of a crusty crust, when you remove the bread from the oven immediately sprinkle 2 T of cold water around the edges of the HOT dutch oven and replace the lid for maybe 20 minutes. Then carefully lift out the loaf by the parchment paper lining and set it on a dish towel to make sure the underside doesn't turn soggy from condensation.
Serve with good butter or marinated warm goat cheese, yum.
Have fun!
love
lizzy
gone to the beach....
Full Moon soon [11-12-19]---November is the Hunters' Moon. Tiny and white in the cold black
sky tonight.
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