Steamed Corn Bread

I’m continuing my experiments with steamed bread. This time, I’m making steamed corn bread in a loaf pan using an interesting steaming vessel.

Steamed corn bread has the color and texture of Boston Brown Bread, but it's made with cornmeal and all-purpose flour rather than a blend of several flours. It's also made with molasses rather than maple syrup so of course, the flavor is different!

The neat thing about this steamed corn bread is that it can be prepared without an oven -- or stove for that matter. You can steam it over a campfire in a cloth sack (called a pain de mais en sac in France) by hanging it over boiling water in a pot. I've been looking for a bread that can be made easily while camping without having to lug a cast iron Dutch oven around. This recipe just might fit the bill.

I'll keep the cloth sack method of steaming the bread in mind for my next camping trip, however, for today, we're going to steam it in a loaf pan set in an oval crock pot. This is a test, we'll see how it works.

Steamed Corn Bread
Makes: 3 small loaves or 2 medium loaves

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads".




Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups yellow or white cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons each salt and baking soda
• 1/2 cup raisins (I used currants instead of raisins because that's what I had)

Equipment needed for steaming breads:

For this recipe, I wanted to test the crock pot method for steaming breads; however, my oval crock pot wasn't big enough to hold the 9-by-5-inch loaf pan so I used a 8 1/2 - by - 4 1/2 - inch loaf pan and steamed the other bread in a coffee can in a large Dutch oven. I wouldn't normally mess up two pans but this was a test so I decided to give it a try.

List of equipment used for the test: oval slow-cooker, large Dutch oven, trivets, loaf pan, coffee can, aluminum foil, rubber band, and greased parchment paper.


Mixing the Batter In a large mixing bowl or mixer bowl beat the eggs, buttermilk, and molasses with the mixer beater or a large wooden spoon until blended. Sift the flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda into the liquid mixture, and stir until smooth. I started off mixing it with a spatula then, I switched to a big wooden spoon. Then I switched back to the whisk. It worked the best for this batter.

Add the raisins (or currants) and blend. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans and/or cans, about two-thirds full.

Preparing the loaves for steaming:

Cover the loaf pan tightly with a piece of aluminum foil and fasten with a rubber band to prevent steam from leaking into the containers and adding unwanted moisture. For the cans, I just used the plastic lid to keep the steam in.

To steam the loaf pan in the slow cooker, place a trivet on the bottom of the slow-cooker and put the loaf pan on the trivet. Poor enough boiling water into the slow-cooker to come halfway up the sides of the pan.

Cover the slow-cooker and using the high setting, steam the bread for about 3 hours.

Remove the pan from the slow-cooker, peel back the aluminum foil and test for doneness using a wooden skewer inserted into the middle. If the skewer comes out clean, the bread is done. If it doesn't come out clean, then return the loaf pan to the slow-cooker and cook for another 10 minutes or so, then remove it and test again.

I tested this bread and put it back in for a little it longer. It took about 2 hours & 45 minutes.

If you're steaming the bread in in a coffee can(s), place the trivet in the bottom of the Dutch oven or large pot, then place the covered cans on the trivets and pour enough boiling water into the pot to come halfway up the sides of the cans.

Then, cover the pot and steam for 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Test the bread with a skewer to make sure it's done completely. If it's not done, recover it and continue steaming. Then check again after about 20 minutes.

Both loaves took about 2 hours & 45 minutes to steam.

 

Drying the Loaves:

The breads finished steaming so I set them on a rack while I preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

After the breads finish steaming, place the pans in a 400 degrees oven for 10 minutes to partially dry the loaves.

Cooling the steamed loaves:

Let the loaves cool in the can(s) and/or loaf pan on a metal cooling rack for 15 minutes before you turn the bread out.

You may need to loosen the loaves by running a knife carefully around the inside edge of the can.

Cool the loaves on a wire rack.




Now it's time to slice the bread and enjoy! I put some cream cheese on mine and served it with strawberries. It was good!



This bread doesn't taste like any cornbread I've ever had. It's definitely different...not bad, just different. I like mine with cream cheese. My taste tester tried it with a little honey and liked it. I sent some home with him. He didn't mind...he never does although he says I'm making him fat. Well I never!


Note: The bread made in the slow-cooker is a little dense even though it is moist. I think next time I'll use a lighter-flavored molasses or even honey. If you decide to try this bread, let me know what you think and what enhancements you would make, if any.


Happy Baking!
Cathy

Casatiello: BBA Challenge

It's Day 5 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge! Five breads down...only 38 more to go! Woohoo!

Today we're making Casatiello! Casatiello is an Italian bread similar in shape to Pannetone, but it's filled with savory meat (usually salami) and cheese rather than candied fruit and nuts. It can also be made with bacon bits, different types of fresh or cured sausage, or with nonmeat substitutes. A few of the other bakers in the challenge are vegetarians so they used non meat substitutes.

I have to say that I really wasn't too keen on making this bread. I usually like to put meat and cheese on bread or between slices of bread, not in it! However, in the spirit of the challenge, I vowed to make it, albeit with a few substitutes. I'm not partial to salami so I decided to substitute pepperoni. I also decided to use an Italian blend of shredded cheeses (mozzarella, smoke-flavored provolone, Romano, Parmesan, Fontina and Asiago) rather than just provolone. Mostly because this is what they had at the grocery store. I'm trying to be as true to the recipes in the challenge as possible but still be practical about the whole thing. I've already got a freezer full of bread in my garage so I didn't want to make anything we wouldn't eat!

Now, after saying all that, I really had fun with this recipe. Funny how that works! Since I didn't think I would like it anyway, I was a little more creative with the ingredients. I thought my sons would be the ones that liked it, but I was wrong. I liked it and they didn't...Go figure!

Here's what my Casatiello looks like!

The casatiello can be baked in 1 large or two small loaf pans, or a no. 10 can or a coffee can (with paper lunch bags inserted), or you can use paper or metal pannetone molds, or even an 8-inch cake pan. Since I've gotten into baking in coffee cans recently, I decided to use that method for this recipe.

Here are photos of the step-by-step process for making the Casatiello in coffee cans:

Now that the loaves are finally cooled completely, I can eat some. Would you like a slice? It's pretty good actually.




Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. 


Stay tuned for Day 6 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. We'll be making Challah.


Happy Baking!
Cathy

Steamed Boston Brown Bread

This steamed Boston Brown Bread is very moist and delicious due to the steaming method. Steamed breads are flavorful and ultra moist without being gummy or packed with fat. This particular brown bread is made with rye, corn, and whole wheat. It tastes great warm, sliced into rounds. I like it with cream cheese. Serve it for your next cookout with baked beans. It's wonderful!

Steamed Rye and Maple Brown Bread

The recipe for this bread is from Beth Hensperger, The Pleasure of Whole-Grain Breads.

Makes: two 1-pound loaves

Ingredients:

• 1 cup golden raisins
• 3 tablespoons golden rum
• 1 cup yellow or white cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
• 1 cup whole-wheat or graham flour
• 1 cup medium rye flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 large eggs

Plumping the raisins

Combine the raisins and rum in a small bowl. Set it aside and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Preparing the pans for baking

In the meantime, generously grease two 1-pound coffee cans, or two 4 or5-cup lidded pudding molds. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.




Tip on using coffee cans as molds

I'm not sure if you've ever had this problem, but I've tried several recipes using coffee cans and the bread always got stuck in the pan because of the ledge at the top. I finally figured out how to get the bread to come out in one piece. I cut the bottom off using a can opener and let the bottom fall to the top and rest on the ledge. So, the bottom became the top and vice versa. Now, the bread should come out very easily. Not sure why it took me 3 tries to figure this out, but they do say that the 3rd time is the charm.


Mixing the Batter

Combine the cornmeal, whole-wheat, rye, and all-purpose flours, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, maple syrup, and eggs. Stir with a whisk until the liquid ingredients are combined. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and add the raisins and rum. Stir well until evenly moistened.



Preparing to bake

Fill each prepared can or mold no more than two-thirds full.




Steaming the bread

Cover tightly with a lid or with aluminum foil held with thick rubber bands. Place on a rack in a deep pot and add boiling water to reach 1 to 2 inches up the sides of the cans or molds. (I used trivets for my rack. They did just fine)




Cover and adjust the heat to maintain a low simmer. Steam for 2 hours, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Add more boiling water during the steaming if too much has evaporated.

I peaked in to see if it needed more water and the tops had already popped off.



It's been 2 hours and the loaves are finished steaming.



Bake the breads for 5 minutes

About 20 minutes before the bread finished steaming; preheat an oven to 400 degrees F.
Uncover the breads and place in the oven for no more than 5 minutes to dry slightly.





Cooling the breads

Remove from the cans or molds and cool the loaves on their sides on a rack.

Eating the breads!

Now, it's time to do the taste test!





This bread was so good, I ate some for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I spread cream cheese on it. So good. Then, I had to go for a run because I ate so many calories!

I brought this bread for a cookout on Sunday along with some homemade baked beans that had been simmering in the crock pot all day. Oh boy! It was a big hit!


Storing the bread

This bread only last a few days before it starts getting moldy. You either need to eat it quickly or freeze it. We ate the first loaf pretty quickly, then I froze the second one. I sliced it before wrapping it up so I can sneak a slice every now and then.


Happy Baking!
Cathy

Making Brioche: BBA Challenge

We made brioche for Day 4 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.


Brioche is an enriched bread made with a good number of eggs and lots of butter. There are three different versions of brioche to choose from in the book depending on the amount of butter-to-flour ratio you want to use.

It seems that a lot of the other bakers in the challenge are making the rich man's or middle class version so I chose to make the poor man's version. Somebody needs to look out for the little guy...might as well be me. Plus, this version uses less butter and eggs than the other two versions so it's a more practical bread in my opinion. It's still very tasty and rich but not overly so.



I've made the Rich Man's Brioche before from the recipe in Peter Reinharts' Crust and Crumb. If you would like to see the results, check out this post. I actually think I like the poor man's version better. I'll have to try the middle class version next time so I can compare all three.

Here is an interesting account of Brioche found on ---Food Timeline, June 7, 2009.

"Brioches originated as soft and light white loaves, enriched with butter and eggs, much much less so than those we know today. They were baked without moulds. Looking at Chardin's beautiful paintings of brioches you can see that he has quite clearly defined the notches round the base of his cottage-loaf-shaped confections, which are handsome and tall but not tidy like a moulded cake. So I think that in the eighteenth century, and at the time of that poor, foolish Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said, when told that the people of Paris were rioting for bread, qu'ils manget de al brioche', the composition of the cake must have been simply that of an enriched bread much like that of our own Bath buns and Sally Lunns, so made at that period without benefit of moulds or tins, although paper bands were sometimes wrapped round them for baking. Certainly it would not be possible to bake today's liquid brioche mixture or crust for a fillet of beef or a large sausage then the brioche mixture is made with fewer eggs and less butter, or it would be impossible to handle." ---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin:Middlesex] 1977 (p. 497)

According to Mr. Reinhart, there are countless formula variations for this bread. Some versions are immediately fermented and then shaped and baked, while some require overnight chilling. The poor man's version requires a sponge, but no overnight chilling. It's a very easy dough to work with.

I like the flour to butter ratio in this version. The other versions are almost too buttery for me. Mostly because when I consider all that butter, I think about what it would do to my arteries. However, anyway you choose to make it, this is a very delicious bread.

The poor man's version can be made in one day and the dough doesn't require refrigeration before shaping. A definite plus in my book!


The sponge

 

The dough

 

 

 

 

 

Making the Brioche

When placing the shaped brioche into the fluted mold, you only fill the molds 2/3 full.  The proofed dough should almost fill the mold or loaf pans.

Then, you'll gently brush the top of the loaves with egg wash.

I decided to freeze the fluted brioche. We sliced the sandwich loaf. In fact, it's almost gone.

We had our slices toasted with butter and cinnamon sugar. Boy was it good! My taste tester says it tastes like a croissant. I'm sure it would also taste good toasted with jam.


Thanks for joining me this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. Next time, we're making Casatiello.


Happy Baking!
Cathy