Breads

For VBS, we're sharing suppers at church. Tonight Pastor is bringing chili, but they needed bread and salad. Because making bread makes me happy, I volunteered to bring that. My first batch of bread this morning was herb bread that I made into breadsticks. It's just my standard whole-wheat recipe, but I added about
1 Tbsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp onion powder
1.5 Tbsp thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Because it was shaped into breadsticks, it needed only about 15 minutes to bake instead of 35. It smelled marlevous.

Next batch was a standard French bread, white flour. [Sigh. I didn't figure I should make all the bread be as healthy as I usually make for us.]


The next set was my Twist Bread. This is something served at one of the swanky restaurants in Lake Geneva. I came up with a way to replicate it. It doesn't taste particularly fantastic (like the herb bread). It's just extra pretty with the yumminess-level of regular homemade bread.

First I make the dark bread. The color comes from using about 80% whole wheat and just a little white flour. I also use coffee instead of the water, brown sugar or molasses instead of the usual sugar, and throw in a tablespoon of cocoa just for extra depth of brownness. While that begins to rise, I make a plain old batch of white bread dough.

When they're ready to shape, cut the dough into smaller chunks, each color into as many finished loaves as you'll want. Press each dough ball into a flattish rectangle, then put one brown rectangle on top of one white rectangle. Press them hard and flat together so that the brown dough won't separate from the white dough while rising. Pick up the rectangle, and flip over one end once or twice, so that the rectangle is twisted. Lay the rectangle down again and press hard to flatten. Then shape the dough for a loaf in the regular way, sealing and pinching as you roll. When cut, you get a very pretty marbling of brown and white.