the flour five
it's time for a year-in-review that starts with a whole lot of bread
Holy moly, it’s so the middle of December!
Are you ready?! Did our holiday cards go out in time?! Did I really hear Auld Lang Syne on the radio (with a ukulele?!) ?! The answers are: You tell me, To be determined, and YES!
We didn’t get a tree this year, but, well, we’re surrounded by spruce and have holiday lights up in our windows for festive/ambient/you’re never too old for it/cozy lighting during most of the year as it is. ‘Tis the season = however you see fit when you have maybe four good hours of daylight these days.
I’ve been looking back on this past year, as one is prone to do in the short coming weeks (!?), and as one fairly obsessed with cooking is wont to contemplate, I started considering what the heck I cooked the most, what I baked, what truly rocked my tastebuds, and what just…took me by surprise.
Thus, I put together three lists of my own super duper personal “top fives”, and today’s foray is for all things bread and flour.
I’m talking about what I kept returning to knead, rise, bake, slather with jam & butter, and bake some more….
Welcome to the Flour Five.
Recipes and notes throughout.
1. TORTILLAS
This was the year I tackled flour tortillas…and resisted the urge to sourdough ‘em, too.
That was so last year, and I enjoy them way more this way. Go figure, not everything has to be tangy.
That said, I do often like to do a 50/50 or 60/40 mix of corn masa to unbleached all purpose flour. For the fat, I go with virgin or refined coconut oil at room temperature.
I knead them in my food professor for ease, smush ‘em down with the bottom of a pan pan, roll them out, and then cook dry in a cast iron skillet, very much with the overhead fan on. Sometimes I make them twice a week and we grab the leftovers to use with quick breakfasts and lunches. It’s pretty great. No, it’s GREAT.
Recipes + References: Flour Tortillas Recipe and Half and Half Tortillas
2. LET’S GET READY TO PANCAKE!
This one goes out to my spouse, the self-exclaimed “pancake prince”, with extra credit going to all that summer berry-picking (& often overlooked bananas that are almost beyond ready to slice, you know how it is) and those two handy cast iron pans getting all warm on the stove.
My pancake-making echoes my bread-making rotation - which I’ll eventually get to - I go for sourdough discard action most of the time, but not exclusively. As if I could resist a “puffy pillow pancake” (iykyk)!
Plus, pancake mornings = a perfectly good time to pull out one of more “interesting” flours I’ve been overlooking lately (aka for months…years…!?) and get on with my life and pantry, i.e. buckwheat or spelt or rice flour. Realistically, I try to always keep a bit of buckwheat flour ready for pancake glory, à la my memories of Paradox Cafe’s hearty multigrain goodness (and sitting at the counter with a side of tofu and mug of decaf, what a strange time that was).
And when in doubt, I opt for a whole wheat-heavy pancake anyhow, especially with that sliced banana. That duo of wholesome + sweet transports me to vegan pancakes in Thailand, and there I go, daydreaming again…
Recipes + References: Puffy Pillow Pancakes and Sourdough Discard Pancakes
3. BAGELS (NOW WE’RE TAWKIN’)
First, let me lay some framework for those that don’t know me well. I am, I was, oh, I am, a native New Yorker of the late twentieth century. Thus, bagels are a way of life.
There were some OK bagels in Portland (hi Spielman’s), but most of what crossed my path in the Northwest were far more akin to heavy rolls with holes….and often, they weren’t even heavy…nor with much of a hole.
I did enjoy baking them during those years, but as I did not import NY tap water, it was never quite the same. Which 1) makes sense, ‘cause that’s the magic - the same is said for thin-crust NYC pizza and 2) it makes those giant bagels even better when I go “home” to visit (and omg, they’re surely at least five bucks with a ‘schmear now, aren’t they?)
In my Alaska life, I make bagels fairly regularly. Once again, they’re usually sourdough-based à la the recipe in Artisan Sourdough Made Simple, which has a peaceful, overnight rise, and occasionally, the quicker and smaller Montreal-style.
Either way, I top most with sesame seeds (my favorite), maybe some smoked chili flakes, coarse salt & pepper, perhaps a sprinkle of fermented black garlic (from TJ’s, surely expired & potentially discontinued by now, shrug) and especially if I’m sharing, I throw on some “everything bagel” mix. I say sharing, because get anything onion bagel FAR away from me. Gross. That said, I’m happy to share!
Speaking of toppings, I want to repeat something from my aquafaba notes not too long ago: that bean juice is great for brushing on before sprinkling or dipping into a bowl of seeds or whatnot, as you would with an egg wash (hold the egg).
We both dig bagels spread with nondairy butter (mmm, what a phrase), ‘schmeared (a front runner for the best phrase ever) with store-bought or homemade cream chz, topped with hummus or the crazy rare appearance of avocado, as a breakfast sandwich holder, and every so often when the marinara and fresh basil align, we literally toast the delight of a pizza bagel.
[Jules’s note: no hummus, yes pizza bagel, butter NOW.
Fun fact - I have yet to visit Quebec, but ! I have enjoyed an impressive bagel here in Alaska, down at The Bagel Shop in Homer (co-run by a New Yorker & Seattle-ite, who have a charming story I recall reading on the establishment’s wall, indeed). This bagel delight was during our first summer road trip south, and featured a bagel stuffed with black garlic hummus and piled high with sprouts & fresh veg.
[Jules’s 2nd note: okay, sometimes hummus. Yes.]
Recipes + References: Easy Homemade Sourdough Bagels (via The Clever Carrot, who wrote the book mentioned above) and Montreal Bagels
For anyone curious, I do avoid honey and substitute sugar, brown sugar and agave in turn when it’s called for in recipes.
I seriously want a bagel tattoo one day. Who’s in?
4. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (DUH)
I was reading a mystery recently where two characters of interest had a penchant for baking, and don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything besides talking about one of the cookies mentioned (er, unless, you happen to connect on storygraph with me, or want to?) because the description of this cookie stopped both me and protagonist in our tracks.
Hear me out: it was a chocolate chip cookie that was entirely rolled in chocolate chips. This obviously sounds amazing, and then give me a minute, because I can picture it, because it must be true, and I must have seen it at some point(s) in my life. The chips are miniature, and the inside is buttery and may or may not have chips within. Either way, what a dreamboat of a concept.
The chocolate chip cookies I make on an admittedly somewhat regular basis are from the following recipes….
Recipes + References: “Bean Juice” Chocolate Chip, Vegan for Everybody’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (ATK) and Applesauce Chocolate Chip from Hello Spoonful
Personally, I dig some peanut butter or even a handful of peanuts (or while I’m at it, pepitas for crunch) in there, but not enough to make them full-on pb cookies, hence the second recipe I’ve included (and if you don’t have that book and the ATK website’s pop-up blocks you, you can also see the recipe here). The recipe calls for almond butter, which I have never ever used, always opting for peanut butter.
I mean, my brother once called these cookies “effin’ good” !
In more recent time, however, you may recall that I’ve been hooked on a new recipe: “bean juice" chocolate chip. I’m still getting a kick out of this concept.
As for chips, I prefer semisweet and dark chocolate chips, and if a recipe calls for milk of any sort, I’m usually subbing half to all of it with chilled coffee when I have some extra in the fridge, which is not unusual.
Once again, I’m partial to (melted) coconut oil, grapeseed, or a decent canola.
5. LAST BUT WAY NOT LEAST: CRUSTY DUTCH OVEN-BAKED LOAVES OF BREAD
The tang, the crust, the crumb! Come on, is there anything more satisfying than a loaf of freshly baked bread?
Arguably, everything else on my list today…and see also: pizza, which technically, technically, technically could fit into this broader category.
Once again, I alternate between two primary methods for these overnight-rise loaves:
the minimally-kneaded sourdough loaves in Emilie Raffa’s Artisan Sourdough Made Simple, particularly the Everything Sourdough, High Hydration Sourdough, and lately, the Chocolate Sourdough (which is supposed to have peanut butter chips, but that’s not really a thing in my world).
the new (old) classic “no knead” bread which I make from the Mark Bittman recipe, which is really the Jim Lahey method, which is really the Italian matriarch way, which is really the history of humans grinding grains and discovering yeast, patience, and fire.
Recipes + References: Emilie Raffa’s Everyday Sourdough, High Hydration Sourdough and All Purpose Flour Sourdough (all fab); Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread
Some extra bread thoughts:
I use a Lodge 6 quart enameled dutch oven for the above recipes.
Oh, I’ll totally knead by hand, but I’m definitely partial to overnight rises that take some of the work out!
I primarily use organic unbleached all purpose flour (typically Bob’s or King Arthur or Central Milling, although I haven’t seen that last one at Costco in months), organic unbleached bread flour (11.5% protein, made from “hard red wheat”, rebranded under Kirkland label), organic whole wheat flour and organic whole wheat pastry flour.
I largely stick to tangy, personal sourdough loaves (and pie crusts, pitas - ditto ASMS, pancakes, pretzels, naan, coffeecake, cinnamon rolls and so much else for active starter and/or discard) but I would say I opt for yeast every few projects, and am partial to it for burger buns and these banana cinnamon rolls.
I do often add a pinch of diastatic malt powder in most bread recipes and it seemingly makes a difference.
Oven talk! Our new kitchen has an electric oven, and I have the best results for baking bread inside a dutch oven pot. My prior cabin’s retro propane stove resulted in nicer crusts, but was also sketchy, annoying and increasingly pricier to refill, and uh, from the 1940s.
A good friend once told me a tip I reckon he read deep in the comments on a recipe forum: sub part of the water in yeasted bread doughs with beer. I have remembered this for years, and can attest that it works just as well with flat or just-opened ales of any variety you have on hand. It adds an element of pleasant “tang”that is more reminiscent of sourdough to a loaf that doesn’t have any.
Bread is a gosh dang life force.
HONORABLE MENTION SHOUT OUT TO…SEMOLINA PASTA DOUGH!
I may not make homemade pasta doughs as much as those prior five, but when I do, I undoubtedly swoon into my plate every time, and that’s after I already find myself vibing to some jazz and hand cranking sheets of dough or breaking off pieces to roll into ropes &pinch & encourage into rustic-yet-darling shapes.
The recipes I like the best use a ratio of more semolina to flour, but an all-semolina dough is a special (filling) experience, for sure.
Either way, I occasionally add a splash or two of as-is aquafaba into the dough for an extra chewy-ness. It does something, really.
Recipes + References: Pasta Acqua e Farina from Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way and The Homemade Vegan Pantry (available on archive.org for the rustic pasta recipe)
Next up: laminating one of these days! That, and making my own rice noodles, but that’s quite the project for another day.
What’s on your “flour” list?
T - B - C with those Dinners and Surprises…
What a glorious carby gluteny list. I wish to eat!
I swooned at the though to chocolate chip crusted cookies, though looking at the book you linked to I suspect it is too tense for me!
I have so many random flours in my cupboard that have been there for literal years... I really need to go through and see if they are still OK and then if they are actually use them up.
A great year of bread (and more!) for you!! Congrats on all the amazing things you’ve made this year & happy holidays <3