Flavorful Additions to Bittman Bread. What's yours?

[missclaudy]

I sprinkled Penzey's dried onion bits on the top of my last loaf before baking. I gave a piece to a friend and he proposed to me. Made a whole wheat ( 1 cup ww flour) loaf yesterday and added a handful of chopped up onion tops from the garden. Scallions would be great. Bittman has created a monster here. I have bread coming out my ears, bye bye South Beach!!!!! Welcome back bread! My friends are ecstatic !

I can't believe I can make such fab bread with my own two little hands.I'm gonna propose to myself!

[artgeek]

I added sunflower seeds to a 2:1 AP/wholewheat batch last weekend. Yum. This weekend I'm trying toasted hazelnuts (husband is lobbying to add chocolate chunks -> Nutella bread).

[C. Hamster]

I have added manchego cheese to the dough before the second rise and more atop it toward the end of baking and it was fantastic.

[dubedo]

Chopped fresh rosemary worked great. I also made a loaf of whole wheat (1/2 ww flour) and folded in raisins and chopped walnuts after the first rise. The raisins and nuts stayed well-distributed and the result was tasty, toasted with butter for breakfast - but the folding was difficult, with me trying to be gentle with the dough, and the resulting loaf was pretty ugly on top.

In his column this week Bittman says the best time to put in additions is in the mixing stage, so now I have a batch of dough with kalamata olives and rosemary rising, and it appears that the olives have not sunk to the bottom. (They're lighter than nuts, though).

[Sam Ottawa]

To follow up on an earlier discussion... did you toast your nuts first?

[dubedo]

Nope. I have a tendency to burn them when I do that, which is not tasty.

[mdc]

Are Penzys dried onion bits the same as Penzy's toasted onions? I went onto their website, but they didn't have anything that was called "dried onions."

[missclaudy]

Yup.

[phofiend]

Actually, no. I just came back from their brick and mortar store with both. One package says "ONIONS WHITE MINCED" which are just dried and the other is "ONIONS TOASTED MINCED." I've used the toasted ones in the bread, and it was very good.

[Sam Ottawa]

What about waiting to incorporate the "add-ins" (raisins, olives, nuts, etc) until the folding stage after the 18 hour rise? Do you think that would solve the sinking problem?

[ggambuti]

First time I heard about the bread sinking. Does anyone know why this has happened?
Maybe Father Kitchen can anser this question for me.
Thanking In Advance
Grace

[Sam Ottawa]

I think phofiend's comment was about the raisins sinking within the loaf, not the bread itself sinking.

[ggambuti]

Thanks Sam for the infomation

[micki]

So I'm wondering...if you omit the salt is the end result a reasonable facsimile of Tuscan salt-free bread?

[C. Hamster]

Probably. I HATE that salt-free bread in Tuscany. Looks and smells so great and tastes so disappointing. IMO the Bittman recipe itself needs more salt.

[jackie de]

Yes, I mix them with the water and then just stir into flour mixture. I used the unbleached white flour this time, thanks to a tip from Father Kitchen. The bread was much better. Had a nice crackly crust, great bread texture and flavor. Next loaf I'm going to try cinnamon and raisons----or maybe dried cranberries.

[blue room]

Like jackie de, I thought of adding "sweet stuff" to this bread, but I'm not sure that the slighty sour taste of the bread would fit with sweets--? I don't suppose you can put sugar in this instead of salt?

[phofiend]

Don't omit the salt! The bread will taste very flat. I actually made a raisin bread this way and it was quite good, but it was almost too crusty for a sweet loaf. I added two tablespoons of sugar and a bit of cinnamon, along with a handful of raisins. I thought of this at the last minute, so no measuring. I had a bit of a problem with the raisins sinking, so I added another small handful of flour.

Next time, I'll do an egg wash to soften up the crust a bit.

[jackie de]

Just took out of the oven a loaf of kalamata olive bread made with unbleached white flour. It's cooling, but looks and smells great. One before this was made 1/2 half a.p.flour and 1/2 organic wheat flour into which I tossed some sesame seeds.

[tdonline]

Are these ingredients being added in the beginning mix?

[Greyhoundgrrl]

I have a batch of rosemary semolina bread rising right now. (1/2 cup minced fresh rosemary and one cup semolina flour substituted for one cup of the AP flour). Once it is baked I will report back!

[NYChristopher]

Expiring minds want to know ;-)

How'd this turn out?