I was looking for a new wheat bread recipe and found one I liked. I made a few adjustments, including adding baking cocoa to the bread.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

• 3/4 cup milk, warmed to 90 to 95 F
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp butter, cut in pieces
• 1 Tbsp baking cocoa
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients in a bread machine in the order listed. Set the machine cycle for “Dough” and press Start.

After the cycle completes, grease a 9×5″ bread pan. Form the dough into a lozenge and place in the pan. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Bake the bread in the middle of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when thumped. Cool on a baking rack.

I decided I want to make a flat bread to go with a version of Gyros … looking for something new, I found several recipes, and decided I liked this one best. Yeah, I tweaked a couple of things.

It’s very easy to make. Since the bread dry-fries in a skillet, the oven is not used, which makes it a summer bread recipe.

Flat Bread

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp bread yeast

I make the dough in the bread machine: Add water, sugar, and salt to the pan. Add flour, then yeast on top. Set for Dough cycle.

After the Dough cycle finishes, remove the dough from the pan. Shape it into log and cut into 4 equal pieces.

Heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat until hot.

Roll the first piece of dough into a ball, then roll into a large circle on a lightly floured surface. The bread will puff up when cooked, so roll it to no more than 1/4″ thick.

Dry-fry (no oil) in the hot skillet for 1 to 2 minutes until puffy and browned on the bottom. Flip and dry-fry another 1 to 2 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. Because stoves and pans vary, some experimentation with heat level and time is required.

Remove the bread to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.

Notes:

The first time I made this, I used bread flour and the bread is chewy.

The second time I used half bread flour, half all-purpose flour as I can out of bread flour. We’ll see how that comes out. If I like the texture better, the third time will be with all-purpose flour.

My changes to this recipe include tweaking the sugar and salt, and adapting to make the dough with the bread machine. This recipe can be hand-kneaded if desired.

I found this on the AllRecipes site a while ago, and got around to trying it tonight.

Since I don’t keep self-rising flour in the house, mine changed to Four Ingredient Naan, but it worked nicely.

Two Ingredient Naan

• 1-1/4 cups self-rising flour, or more as needed
• 1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt

Mix flour and yogurt together in a large bowl until combined. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking, 2 to 3 minutes.

Pat dough into a rough 9×7″ rectangle. Divide into 8 equal pieces. Lightly dust each piece with flour and flatten into a semi-rectangular shape, about 1/4″ thick.

Lightly grease a large skillet and place it over medium heat. Add 1 or 2 of the flattened dough pieces to the skillet. Cook until they begin to bubble and brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Flip over and cook an additional 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining dough until all pieces are cooked. Serve warm.

Cook’s Notes: Cooking these flatbreads can be a bit of a smoky process! Make sure to have a window open or a stove vent on just in case!

Homemade self-rising flour: for every 1 cup of all-purpose flour, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of baking powder to make it “self-rising”.

Notes:

I patted the dough into a 7″ diameter, cut it in 8 pieces, then rolled each piece into a ball before flattening it.

1/4″ thick is way too thick. The bread was burning before it cooked through, so I had to turn the heat down a couple of notches. The last part of the batch I rolled to 1/8″ thickness and it worked much better.

2 minutes per side was plenty — the original instructions said it would be smoky — the house smelled of “burnt”, but the naan was fine.

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

• 1/4 cup evaporated milk, at room temperature
• 1 pkg (1 Tbsp) active dry yeast
• 6 cups bread flour, unsifted
• 1-1/2 cups hot water
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup instant potato flakes
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place the evaporated milk in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it; let set for 5 minutes or until the yeast has dissolved.

Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer together with the flour, water, eggs, butter, and potato flakes. Using the dough hook, knead at low speed for about 7 minutes; the dough should be fairly soft. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

(The dough may mixed and kneaded by hand, in which case it should be kneaded on a floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic. Use additional flour to keep it from sticking, but keep extra flour to a minimum. Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise as above.)

Add the sugar, salt, and extracts to the dough and knead again at low speed for 7 minutes (or by hand for 10 minutes). Divide the dough in half and form into two balls. Place in greased 8″ round cake pans, cover, and let the dough rise again for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and bakes the loaves for about 1 hours, or until the bread is dark brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.

Pandiramerino (Rosemary Bread)

• 25g dried yeast
• 400g plain white flour
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 50g sugar
• fresh rosemary
• 150g sultanas

Dissolve the yeast with a little warm water in a mixing bowl. Add the sifted flour, three tablespoons of oil, the sugar and some more warm water. Mix together briskly, form into a ball and leave to rise for two hours.

Heat two tablespoons of oil and the washed and dried fresh rosemary leaves in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the sultanas. When the oil has cooled, mix and knead well into the raised dough. Make into six buns, arrange on a baking tray dusted with flour and leave to rise for another half hour.

Mark the top of each bun with a cross, brush with oil and bake in the oven at 350 F for thirty minutes.

Ramerino is the vernacular word for rosemary and originally these rosemary flavored buns were a specialty prepared on Easter Thursday. Now they are made all year round, however, and Florentine eat these fragrant buns as a tasty mid-morning snack.

Brown Bread

• 1-1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2 Tbsp shortening
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 F)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 4-3/4 to 5-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• melted butter or margarine

In a bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. Cool to 110 to 115 F. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Sprinkle with sugar. Add cooled oat mixture, brown sugar, molasses, and 3 cups flour; mix well. Add enough remaining flour to form soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Place in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Divide in half; shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9″ x 5″ x 3″ loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake at 375 F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks. Brush with butter. Yields 2 loaves.

James Beard’s Cuban Bread

• 1-1/2 pkg active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 cup warm water (100 to 115 F)
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 5 cups all-purpose or hard wheat flour plus 1 cup
• 3 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
• 1 Tbsp egg white, mixed with 1 Tbsp cold water

Combine the yeast with sugar and warm water in a large bowl and allow to proof.

Mix the salt with the flour and add to the yeast mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough. Remove to a lightly floured board and knead until no longer sticky, about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Place in a buttered bowl and turn to coat the surface with butter.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down the dough. Turn out on a floured board and shape into two long, French bread-style loaves. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal, but NOT buttered. Slash the tops of the loaves diagonally in two or three places with a single edge razor blade or sharp knife, brush the loaves with the egg white wash.

Place in a COLD oven, set the temperature at 400 F, and bake 35 minutes, or until well browned and hollow sounding when the tops are tapped.

Dark Pumpernickel Bread

• 3 pkg active dry yeast
• 1-3/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 F)
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp caraway seed
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 2-1/2 cups dark rye flour
• 1 cup whole-bran cereal
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 to 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• cornmeal
• butter or margarine, softened

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in molasses, oil, caraway seed, salt, rye flour, bran cereal, and cocoa. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough all purpose flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest 10 to 15 minutes. Knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1 hour. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)

Grease cookie sheet; sprinkle with cornmeal. Punch down dough; divide in halves. Shape each half into a round, slightly flat loaf. Place loaves in opposite corners of cookie sheet. Brush tops with margarine; let rise until double, 40 to 50 minutes. Heat oven to 375 F.

Bake until loaves sound hollow when tapped, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes 2 loaves.

Pita Bread

• 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 package of active dry yeast
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1-1/3 cups water
• 1 Tbsp salad oil
• cornmeal

In large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, salt, yeast and sugar. In 1 quart saucepan over medium heat, heat water and salad oil until very warm (about 120 to 130 F).

With mixer at low speed, beat liquid into dry ingredients; beat until just mixed. Increase speed to medium. Beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. Stir in enough additional flour (about 2 cups) to make a soft dough.

On floured surface, knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed. Shape into ball. Place in greased medium bowl, turning over to grease top. Cover; let dough rise in warm place, away from draft, until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough, turn onto floured surface. Cut dough into 6 pieces. cover, let rise 30 minutes. Meanwhile lightly sprinkle 3 ungreased cookie sheets with cornmeal.

On lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into a 7″ circle. Place 2 circles on each cookie sheet. Cover with towel. Let rise in warm place 45 minutes or until doubled in height.

Preheat oven to 475 F. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until pitas are puffed and golden brown. Serve pitas immediately with favorite filling.

To serve later: Cool five minutes then place warm bread in plastic bags to keep moist and pliable. To reheat: Preheat oven to 375 F. Wrap pocket breads in foil and heat 10 minutes or until hot.

Interspersed in this recipe are Stephen’s comments. This was the first time he made bread, and it came out fantastic! In 1995 he made bread sticks and crepes, and was voted our Bread Man.

Braided Italian Loaves

• ~5 cups all-purpose or bread flour
• 2 packages of dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• water
• cornmeal
• oil (not 10w-40!)
• egg white

Combine sugar, salt yeast, and 2 cups flour.

Heat butter and 1-3/4 water in pan over low heat until it reaches the temperature recommended by your yeast package. (Butter may not melt entirely)

Mix liquid into dry ingredients with a mixer at low speed until blended (a hand mixer works fine for me). Beat 2 more minutes at medium speed (this helps form the gluten). Add another 1/2 cup flour to thicken batter and beat another 2 minutes. Stir in 1-3/4 cups flour to make a dough (I do this by hand, but a Kitchen Aid should also do a good job).

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead, working in more flour as required to get desired consistency (about 3/4 cup). (Just beat the living daylights out of it for about 10 minutes. Either this part or braiding the loaves is the most fun. I can’t decide which.)

Divide dough into two equal portions, cover, and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

Grease a large cookie sheet and dust with cornmeal.

Working on a lightly floured surface, take one portion of your dough and divide into three equal portions. Form three ropes with the dough that are a little longer than you want the final loaf to be. Place the three ropes side-by-side and begin braiding from the middle of the loaf to one end. Now braid the other half of the loaf (I bet that you saw that one coming huh?). Place the loaf on a cookie sheet and brush on oil. Repeat with the second half of the original dough.

Cover loaves with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 425F. Remove the loaves from the fridge, uncover and let them sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes.

Beat egg white (one egg will do) and 1 tablespoon of water. After loaves have baked for 20 minutes, brush them with the egg-white mixture and bake 5 minutes longer. Loaves should turn a beautiful shade of brown and sound done when you thump them. Cool the loaves on a wire rack when they are done.