Bread and Butter

It is hard to think of something that tastes better than fresh homemade bread and butter. This bread recipe has become my family’s daily bread loaf. It has a moist crumb and a crackling crust. The bread is very easy to make and the results are fresher and most likely better than what you can buy in your local bakery. For the butter I like to culture my cream with buttermilk before churning it. It makes a higher yield and has a wonderful flavor more like European butter. Give it a try.

Basic Overnight Bread

Yield = 1-11/4 lb. loaf

3c (400grams) bread flour

2t salt

1/4t yeast (instant or active dry)

1 1/3c (300 grams) water (around 60°)

cornmeal, bran, or flour for dusting dough

1. Mix all ingredients until they just come together. I use my kitchen aid but mixing by hand works well too. This dough will be very wet and sticky.

2. Cover and let sit overnight or for 12-18 hours and up to 24 hours.

3. Dough is ready when it has expanded to fill the bowl and has a flat surface dotted with holes.

4. Use a handful of cornmeal, bran, or flour to top your dough and scrape the sides of the bowl to loosen the dough into a ball. Handle lightly. Place your shaped dough in a tea towel or covered bowl to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

5. Dough is ready to bake when you poke it and your finger mark stays.

6. Preheat a deep cast-iron pot with lid in your oven at 475°about ½ hour before your dough is ready. Be sure the knob on the lid to your pot will withstand this hot temperature, if not simply remove it.

7.Carefully take the hot pot out of the oven. Remove lid. Quickly roll your dough into the bottom of the hot pot seam side up. Replace lid.

8. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, and then remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes more. For best flavor your bread be close to a chestnut brown color but not burned. Most bread is not baked long enough and is missing the wonderful flavors that you get from baking a bit longer.

9. Carefully remove bread from hot pot and cool completely before eating. The inside of your bread is still cooking from residual heat.

10. For rye or whole wheat variation: use 2 1/4c (300 grams) bread flour and 3/4c (100 grams) whole wheat or rye flour and double your yeast to 1/2 t.

*Adapted from “My Bread” by Jim Lahey

Cultured Butter

Yield = about ½ lb.

1 qt. heavy cream

1/4c cultured buttermilk

salt (to taste)

1. Mix cream and buttermilk in a glass mason jar with lid.

2. Set out at room temperature for overnight or about 12 hours.

3. Chill cultured cream to 60°. You can use it at this point just as you would use crème fraiche.

4. Shake cream using a container that is half full or use a butter churn. Shake or churn until butter forms a mass and separates from the buttermilk. This usually takes about 10 minutes. You may stop and re-chill your cream if it warms up.

5. Strain off buttermilk and reserve for another use (wonderful to use for making biscuits).

6. Rinse butter by squeezing it in a strainer under cold water until water runs clear. This removes all traces of the buttermilk which will make your butter sour prematurely if not removed.

7. Stir in salt to taste if desired. Salting will make your butter last bit longer.

8. Keeps about two weeks in refrigerator.

Meyer Lemons

Meyer lemons make a brief appearance in Colorado grocery stores about the first week in April. These lemons are native to China and thought to be a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange. They are thinner skinned, juicier, and sweeter than your regular lemon and have a wonderfully fragrant floral taste and aroma. Since I could not help myself I brought home about 100 lemons. What to do with them?*

Meyer Lemon Syrup

Yield = 4 cups

12 meyer lemons (approximately)

1c sugar

1c simple syrup

1. Wash and zest lemons.

2. Juice lemons to obtain 2c. of juice.

3. Mix zest, juice, and sugar in a lidded jar.

4. Shake to mix until sugar has dissolved.

5. Leave overnight to develop flavor.

6. Strain liquid. Discard peel or save for another use.

7. Add simple syrup.

8. Refrigerate.

9. Enjoy in seltzer as a cool drink, or in hot water as a “tea”.

Preserved Lemons

Yield = 1 quart jar

8 lemons

8T salt

1. Carefully scrub the lemons in hot water to remove any wax.

2. Starting from the end opposite the blossom end cut each lemon in quarters but do not cut all the way through. Lemon pieces should be still attached at the blossom end.

3. Stuff each lemon with 1 Tablespoon of salt.

4. Place lemons after salting into a sterilized jar. Press lemons to exude their juice.

5. Press the lemons down as much as possible, adding more lemon juice to cover if needed.

6. Place lid on jar and shake to dissolve salt.

7. Refrigerate for one month.

8. To use scrape off pulp and discard. Use preserved peel after rinsing.

9. Wonderful in Mediterranean dishes.

*Also try meyer lemons in lemon bars, marmalade, sliced thinly in salads (eat the whole thing) or with artichokes or asparagus.

Homemade Cheese

The past fall and winter I have been teaching cheese-making classes at Culinary School of the Rockies. Here are the recipes for homemade Ricotta and Mozzarella. The best cheese is made with the best milk so find a good source of cream-top milk fresh from the source if you can. If not you should be able to successfully make these cheeses with store-bought whole milk.

Mozzarella

Yield= about one pound

2 gallons whole milk (skim milk may be used but yield will be lower and cheese will be drier)

1T citric acid powder

¼ tablet rennet

1/4c cool water

1/4c salt (for salting whey)

1. Dissolve rennet in water.

2. Pour milk into a large pot.

3. Sprinkle citric acid onto the cold milk and stir to mix.

4. Bring milk to 88º-90º over medium heat (for goat’s milk 86º-88º) stirring the milk a few times. It will take about 10 minutes.

5. Pour dissolved rennet into the milk while stirring with an up and down motion. Then heat the milk to 100º- 105º.

6. Turn off heat.

7. Keep stirring slowly. The milk will begin to thicken and clot. Curds will separate from the whey.

8. Place a colander over another pot. Drain curds and reserve whey.

9. Press whey out of curds in colander.

10. Return whey to stove. Add salt and heat to 120º.

11. Place curds back into hot whey.

12. Heat the cheese in the hot whey and then pick up and squeeze and stretch the cheese into a rope. Wear rubber gloves if this is too hot for your hands.

13. Drop the cheese back into the hot whey for a few minutes when it starts to cool off and then take it out and stretch it again.

14. Keep heating your whey (as hot as you can stand it up to about 160º) and continue stretching your cheese until it is smooth and shiny like taffy.

Whole-Milk Ricotta

Yield= 1 ½ - 2 pounds

1 gallon whole milk

1 t citric acid

1/4c cool water

1t salt

1-2 T heavy cream (optional)

1. Place milk in large pot.

2. Dissolve citric acid in water and add solution to milk.

3. Heat mixture to 185º to 195º (do not boil) stirring often.

4. Keep at temp. turning off heat when curds and whey separate.

5. Let sit undisturbed for 10 minutes.

6. Line a colander with butter muslin.

7. Carefully ladle the curds into the colander.

8. Hang muslin to drain for 20-30 minutes until the desired consistency has been reached.

9. Add cream if desired for smoother texture.

10. Ricotta will last for 1-2 weeks refrigerated.