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Chocolate Swirled Bread

19 Mar

Not to sound too dramatic about this, but I have a slight confession to make.  You know those deliciously sweet cakes and treats I’ve been sharing with you over the past few weeks?  Like this cake and these waffles and these cookies?  Purely out of curiosity, I made all of those treats with at least 1/3 less sugar (in some cases, even less) than each recipe called for.  And then I served those treats to people without telling them what I had done.  And not one person noticed.  Not one.  Not even I noticed, and, believe me, I tried.  Eyes squinted in concentration, methodically chewing my food and analyzing each bite as though I were a culinary Columbo, I failed to detect even a hint of missing sweetness.  In some cases, even though I had removed a good chunk of a recipe’s sugar, I still thought that a case could be made to take out even more of the sugar.  I know, right?  It just can’t be possible.

But it is, and there is no better example of this experiment, I believe, than this bread.  Yet another bread in only name (due to the fact that it delightfully toes the line between living as a bread and living as a cake), this is an absolutely wonderful treat with its chunks of bittersweet chocolate, hints of cinnamon, and delicate crumb.  Everything in this bread, from top to bottom, is perfectly sweetened.  A lid of light streusel topping is the perfect antidote to the moist bread beneath, and, with 1/3 of the sugar removed from both the bread and the topping, the crunchy streusel never propels the taste experience from “Oh, this is so delicious,” to “Ouch, call the dentist.”

I am telling you, I’ve totally been converted.  1/3 less sugar.  Do it.  Last week I made reduced sugar chocolate chip cookies and then gave them out to people and, I am telling you, not a single soul knew my secret.  The week before that I made a vegan dark chocolate zucchini cake with 1/3 less sugar and, again, no one was the wiser about the cake’s triple punch of secrets.  I almost feel as though I am getting away with something sinister, only, in reality, I think the opposite is actually true.  If no one misses the sugar, why not keep up with my experiment?  What’s the harm?  And, more importantly, if I am eating 1/3 less sugar with each slice of cake, does that logically mean that I am then able to nibble off a 1/3 more cake and suffer no ill effects?  These are important questions, and I intend to do my best to get to the bottom of them, 1/3 more dessert at a time.

Chocolate Swirled Bread

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts

2 large eggs

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into pea-sized and smaller pieces

2/3 cup buttermilk or sour milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Streusel

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350  degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour an 8 ½” by 4 ½” loaf pan (Moosewood notes that a 9” by 5” loaf pan would also be all right, so I can only assume that it’s true).

Separate one of the eggs, placing the yolk in a large bowl and the white in a smaller bowl.  Add the chopped chocolate to the bowl with the egg white, mix to combine, then set aside.  To the bowl with the egg yolk, add the second egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.  Beat with a fork for at least 1 minute, until well blended.  In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all streusel ingredients.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the other ingredients until the mixture turns crumbly, but not too finely textured.  Spread 1/3 of the streusel mixture over the bottom of the prepared loaf pan.  Combine the buttermilk mixture with the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just blended.  Fold the chocolate and egg white into the batter, being careful not to overmix everything and ruin the marbling effect of the chocolate.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and top with the remaining streusel.  Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the bread is firm and pulls away slightly from the sides of the pan.  Allow the bread to cool before removing from the pan.

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Recipe Roundup

15 Mar

I could not be happier that March has replaced February, the frosty mornings seem to have drawn to a close, and Spring Training is in full swing (no pun intended).  Portland Farmers Market will be starting up their regular season in just a few short days, and that means I’ll once more be creating seasonal, affordable recipes for them every month of the market’s run.  Until that revs up, you can read my newest piece on the Portland Farmers Market website, wherein I admit that if I had one last meal to eat in my life, it would not be a fancy one.

I am also getting back into the swing of things over at Indie Fixx.  Here are my most recent articles and recipes for Indie Fixx, where you can find my regular food column, Melting Pot.

Indian-Spiced Rolls

Carrots Two Ways

An ode to carrots, plus a great recipe for roasted carrot and garlic spread, and quick pickled Indian carrots (which, by the way, were so good, I had to hide them in the back of the refrigerator so I’d stop eating them for breakfast).

Lemongrass Rice Patties with Honey-Lime Dipping Sauce

Also, a couple of weeks ago I tested out my 1/3 less sugar routine on the legendary America’s Test Kitchen chocolate chip cookie recipe.  This is not by any means a new recipe, so I’ll leave it up to you to partake in some simple Google searching to find the recipe (in case you end up finding more than once ATK chocolate chip cookie recipe, it’s the one with the browned butter and the brilliant stir-and-wait-and-stir mixing method).

In addition to cutting the total sugar content by 1/3, I also used 3/4 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/4 unbleached all-purpose flour.  While the missing sugar was never detected, the texture of the cookies was slightly altered due to the flour swap.  My father, a chocolate chip cookie aficionado if ever there was one, spent a fair amount of time analyzing the cookies, and his determination was that the reducing of the sugar got a definite thumbs-up, but the whole wheat flour was a no-go, due to the fact that the heartier flour altered the texture of the cookie in a way that took it from chewy to densely cake-like.  My taste experience with the cookies was pretty much the same, so, if you’re going to alter the recipe in any way, I would suggest cutting the sugar by 1/3 but leaving the flour as is.  Also, add walnuts, because walnuts are delicious.

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Italian-Style Herb Bread

8 Mar

This started out as a recipe that was not at all mine.  Spotted in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Bible, the original bread featured a wholly different selection of herbs, a nice dose of white wine, and a hearty stuffing of Italian sausage.  But then, as these things so often happen, when I wanted to make the bread I found that I was not in possession of the particular herbs Ms. Hensperger called for.  I was also out of wine.  And sausage (because who just keeps a spare supply of sausage lying around the house?  Or maybe people actually do that and I just don’t know it?  I must research this further).

So I made do.  The herbs were a bit different, the wine was swapped out with warm water and a generous glug of balsamic vinegar, and the stuffing changed from sausage to a lovely layer of roasted red pepper and sautéed spinach.  The end result, though not much like the one intended by Hensperger, was wonderful.  But now, sitting down to type this, I am beginning to wonder if the two recipes can rightfully be called the same thing.

The idea came from Hensperger, of course, and the method is all hers, but the ingredients are a far stretch from those so dutifully printed in her cookbook.  Can a recipe that started as a vision for one thing and then eventually morphed into another be given the distinction of being one in the same?

I suppose not.  However, it would be incredibly wrong of me to claim this recipe as my own creation, as the heart of it lies, I believe, with Hensperger.  Well, maybe not the geographical heart, since the middle (the stuffing) is composed of something almost entirely different than what was originally intended, but, you know, the soul of the recipe lies with Hensperger.

I do not believe this recipe could ever be called my own, but I also don’t believe that Hensperger would look at it and recognize it as hers, either.  So, where does this leave us?  I am delighted to report that this, of course, leaves us in the realm of food, cooking, and the inspiration that the two can bring.  This is an amalgamation, a recipe borne from inspiration.  It’s a little bit my own, a larger bit Beth Hensperger’s, and entirely the result of the creativity and imagination that food can inspire.

Italian-Style Herb Bread

Adapted heavily from Beth Hensperger’s Bread Bible

1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons dried basil

2 teaspoons dried marjoram

½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, or ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cups warm water

1 ½ tablespoons active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

5 to 5 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 large red bell pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup chopped scallions

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 cups roughly chopped spinach

salt and pepper

8 ounces of fresh, whole milk mozzarella cheese, diced

In a small bowl, combine pepper, herbs, and olive oil, and let sit for at least 1 hour at room temperature.

Pour the warm water into a small bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast and pinch of sugar over the water.  Stir to dissolve, then let sit at room temperature until foamy, about 10 minutes.  In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast mixture, salt, balsamic vinegar, and herb-oil mixture.  Beat until foamy.  Add in 5 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon (or, if you are using a stand mixer, the paddle attachment) to make a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until springy, smooth, and resilient, about 5 minutes.  Dust with the remaining ½ cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too wet and resistant to kneading.  If kneading with a stand mixer, replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook and knead as instructed for only 3 or 4 minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl.  Grease the top of the dough, then cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

While the dough is rising, preheat your oven’s broiler and arrange an oven rack to the highest position.  Place the bell pepper on a heavv baking sheet, then place the sheet on the highest oven rack, directly under the hottest part of the broiler.  Roast pepper, turning frequently, until the skin is uniformly blackened all over.  Remove blackened pepper to a plate, then cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes to allow the skin to begin steaming loose.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the scallions and garlic and sauté, stirring frequently to keep the garlic from browning, until the scallions have started to soften, about 3 minutes.  Add the chopped spinach and sauté, stirring frequently, for an additional 5 to 8 minutes, until the spinach has released its liquid.  Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to room temperature.

Peel the blackened skin from the roasted pepper.  Remove and discard the seeds and core of the pepper.  Roughly dice the roasted, peeled pepper, then set aside.

20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place an oven rack in the middle position, then place a heavy baking sheet or a baking stone on the rack.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a rimless baking sheet, or on an overturned baking sheet.

Gently deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat the dough into a 14” by 10” rectangle, with the long side facing you.  Spread the cooled spinach mixture lengthwise along the middle third of the dough, then sprinkle with the roasted pepper, then the cheese.  Fold the dough into a smaller rectangle by bringing the two long ends together, then pinch to close.  Fold each short end over by about 1 inch, then pinch each end closed.  Lay the dough, seam side down, on the parchment-lined baking sheet.  Using a sharp knife, make several diagonal slashes on top of the dough.  Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes.

Slide the dough, still resting on the parchment paper, onto the heated baking sheet or baking stone.  Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the dough is brown and it emits a hollow sound when tapped with a finger.  Transfer immediately to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.

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