Baking homemade bread is not as difficult as today’s society might have you believe. In fact with all the modern bread machines out there we shouldn’t have to ever buy a loaf again. But as we continue to pursue the fruits of happiness it seems we don’t have enough time to bake a few tasty loaves anymore. What a shame. We’re missing out on a part of our culture that was once very important and necessary.
I make bread whenever I get an inkling to have something different. I use my hands in the old fashion Italian way I grew up with when I’m feeling energetic and nostalgic and I also use a bread machine to help with the kneading. I prefer to use the machine for this because it produces nice dough with well-developed gluten with little effort on my part.
Most people don’t realize you can practically add anything to the bread dough that you want. I’ve used bacon, chopped baked potatoes, corn, herbs, grains and even captain crunch cereal once when I was bored! Today I decided to use some of my chanterelle mushrooms that I harvested last summer. I had an abundance of dried golden chanterelles so I decided to make bread. The remaining mushrooms will go into ravioli that I will tell you about later.
I have a coffee bean grinder that works beautiful for grinding and making a useable powder out of dried mushrooms. It also makes it handy to have a healing cup of mushroom brew on these cold winter days. Today we are finding out more and more about the valuable properties of certain wild mushrooms including hen of the woods and shiitake. www.gmushrooms.com. www.alohamedicinals.com.
Getting back to the bread I just used a favorite recipe I keep in the back of my head. Being a chef I’ve made thousands of loaves of bread over my career and I can almost just whip a batch of dough together without thinking too much about it. But I will try to remember the formula so you can try this really unique loaf. The most important ingredient is the mushrooms. If you don’t have wild mushrooms you can buy dried ones at a specialty market and grind them yourself with a coffee grinder or your blender.
You will need:
4-cups bread flour
¾ cup dried mushroom powder
½ cup powdered milk
1-tbs. salt
1-tbs. sugar
1-oz dried yeast
1 ¼ cup water. Reserve ¼ cup to proof the yeast
1 tbs.olive oil
Combine the dry ingredients except for the yeast in the bowl of your bread maker or a mixing bowl if attempting to knead by hand. Mix it all together well so the salt and sugar mixes well with the flour. Add the yeast to the water and sprinkle a pinch of sugar on it to start the proofing. When it begins to foam or get thick combine with the remaining water and add to the flour mixture and begin the kneading process. By hand you will work the dough for about 10 min kneading and stretching to assure the gluten develops. With the machine set the program for basic bread dough and begin the process. When the dough if finished it will be warm and elastic with a fresh mushroom fragrance. Let the dough rest and double in size on a floured wood board or place in a large mixing bowl then cover with a damp towel until doubled. About an hour and a half is needed at least. Then you can cut it in half and place in a loaf pan or make Italian style loaves and bake on a sheet pan or you can cut then into 2 oz. balls and roll into dinner rolls. Bake in a hot oven 375 degrees until the bread is golden brown and has a hollow sound when thumped about 25-30 min usually.
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