Beer Bread with Dried Cherries and Walnuts
How can I convince you to bake this bread? Is it by sharing with you just how deceivingly easy it is to make? Perhaps I can persuade you by telling you it is so good you may never buy a loaf of store-bought bread again? Maybe the photos are enough to entice you. Whatever the reason, I promise you, you won’t regret it.
Full credit for this bread goes to the mom of Alexandra Stafford of Alexandra’s Kitchen and her willingness to share her closely guarded recipe for peasant bread, a bread that she baked nearly daily throughout Alexandra’s childhood. Just imagine – she baked a version of this bread nearly everyday! I think that speaks to the ease by which this loaf comes together. There’s no kneading involved! Even those who might feel overwhelmed with the concept of baking bread can produce beautiful, golden, and delicious loaves. Alexandra took her mom’s recipe and wrote an entire book of recipes offering variations on the original recipe. I have made many of the recipes from her book and I honestly can’t choose one over another as my favorite. Since I have always been a fan of dried fruit and nuts in my bread, this recipe won out as the recipe I wanted to share with all of you.
The really fun thing about this bread is that it bakes in pyrex bowls. If you don’t have two 1-quart pyrex bowls you can find them here, or try finding used ones at flea markets, thrift shops, Etsy, Ebay, and other similar sources. It will be well worth the effort because once you make this beer, dried cherry and walnut version you will want to buy the book and make more of Alexandra’s recipes. Fast, easy, and delicious homemade bread is what it’s all about!
Beer Bread with Dried Cherries and Walnuts
1 1/2 cups (170g) walnut pieces
4 cups (512g) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 cup (92g) dried cherries (cut in half if large)
1 1/2 cups amber ale, room temperature
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup neutral oil
Softened butter, for greasing
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spread the walnut pieces on a sheet pan in a single layer. Toast in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove and transfer the walnuts to a clean tea towel and rub to remove the walnut skins. Taking care to leave as many skins behind as possible, transfer the nuts to a colander and shake to remove any remaining skins. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add the toasted walnut pieces, and dried cherries. In a small bowl, combine the beer and boiling water, followed by the oil, and add it to the flour, Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the dough has doubled in bulk.
3. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 425˚F. Grease two 1-quart oven-safe bowls with the softened butter – be generous. Using two forks, deflate the dough by releasing it from the sides of the bowl and pulling it toward the center. Rotate the bowl quarter turns as you deflate, turning the mass into a rough ball.
4. Using your two forks and working from the center out, separate the dough into two equal pieces. Use the forks to lift each half of dough into a prepared bowl. If the dough is too wet to transfer with forks, lightly grease your hands with butter or oil, then transfer each half to a bowl. Do not cover the bowls. Let the dough rise on the countertop near the oven (or another warm, draft-free spot) for 10 to 20 minutes, until the top of the dough just crowns the rims of the bowls.
5. Transfer the bowls to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375˚F and bake for 17-20 minutes more, until golden all around. Remove the bowls from the oven and turn the loaves out onto cooling racks. If the loaves look pale, return them to their bowls and bake for 5 minutes longer. Let the loaves cool for 15 minutes before cutting.
Makes 2 loaves
Adapted from Bread Toast Crumbs by Alexandra Stafford
Whenever I announce that I’m going to make a batch of biscuits, oohs and aahs from family and friends fill my kitchen. Their excitement makes me feel as though I possess some kind of wizardry when all I do is turn five basic ingredients into something so universally loved. It’s not magic, I prefer to think of it as alchemy -alchemy that anyone can achieve with just a few tricks up their sleeve. And, I fully believe that once you can successfully bake a biscuit, you will have friends for life. After all, who doesn’t hanker for a towering, flaky, buttery, biscuit.
The recipe I’m sharing here is very straight forward. It’s the technique that sets it apart, creating the flaky layers recognizable in the photo above. Success depends on what I call the Holy Trinity Method of biscuit making. Start cold, work fast, and be gentle. The butter and buttermilk should be VERY cold. You will want to work fast so that the butter doesn’t start to warm up. And lastly, be gentle when working the dough. Too much rough handling and the biscuits will be tough.
With all the turmoil taking place in our country these days, permeating our lives on a daily basis, you would have to be living under a rock not to be effected. The news is overwhelming and depressing with issues that run the gamut from political, to gender and racial inequality, to natural disasters that are wiping out entire communities and washing away our natural landscapes. Is it any wonder that I have been feeling forlorn and powerless? This week I did something to remind myself I am not powerless. I have my voice and I have my skills. I can speak up and act in order to create change. Great change can happen through small steps.
Kindness cookies. That’s what I dubbed these cookies after taking them to my new neighbors and welcoming them to our little slice of heaven in Lunada Bay. It only makes sense that to breed kindness you have to be kind, and what better place to start than in our own backyards. Since I am a baker, making cookies comes easily to me. I decided to use one of my talents to spread some kindness. That simple gesture not only made them feel welcomed, it brought me joy to use my skill to show kindness to someone else.
My intention with this post is not to be preachy. It’s only to share how I managed to find a way to bring kindness and warmth to my small community. In the eulogy my brother composed when our mom passed away a few years ago he wrote, ‘Mom said more than once that being nice or being kind was easier than not being nice and kind. I am sure she thought small acts were just as important as grand gestures.’ And so do I.
I’ve never created a bucket list – per se. To be sure, there are things I want to accomplish, places I want to travel to, and experiences I hope to have, but I’ve never put together an actual ‘list’ of those things. If I did have a bucket list, baking a crusty, slightly tangy, artisan style sourdough bread would have been pretty near the top. I am proud to say that as of a few days ago, I can cross that off of my ‘non existent’ list.
It was quite the journey getting to the golden brown incrusted – and dare I say gorgeous – boule you see here in these photos. It all began back in November. Technically, it began years ago when I first became enamored with the concept of making an all natural sourdough starter from scratch. I had made a number of attempts over the years but never with real success. But this past November I became more determined than ever and finally achieved success using a process I found on Maurizio Leo’s blog 
I was beyond giddy as I pulled my first loaf from the oven. I may have even jumped up and down clapping my hands. It looked beautiful! Just like the photos from The Perfect Loaf and Tartine Bread. Knowing that looks aren’t everything, how the bread tasted would be the real test. Well, it was DELICIOUS!! I may have been slightly biased but when my friend’s eyes rolled back in her head as she chewed her first bite I was pretty convinced I had met with success.
How beautifully and delicious my sourdough boule turned out isn’t really the point of this post. Please don’t misinterpret my sense of accomplishment with boasting. My point is, I pushed myself in an area of baking that totally intimidated and challenged me. And that feels good! In truth, it feels amazing!!
Within five walking blocks of my childhood home, there was a small and rather quaint German bakery. Luckily for me, not only was the bakery close to home, but for many of my younger years my mom was an employee at that bakery. She wasn’t a baker, at least not professionally, although she was plenty talented enough to be one. My mom worked the counter. My guess is that on the days she worked, sales were higher at the bakery than on the days she didn’t work. Besides being a beautiful woman, my mom was smart and personable. She likely knew many of the customers personally and treated those she didn’t know as if she did. My mom once gave me a diamond ring that had belonged to one of her customers. One day, the woman brought it, along with a few other treasures, to the bakery and gave them to my Mom. The woman wanted her to know how much she had appreciated her kindness over the years.
As children, my siblings and I, still in jammies and planted in front of cartoons, enjoyed many a Saturday breakfast with boxes of baked goods carried home by my dad after dropping my mom off at work. I had many favorites among the varied selection of goods, and my favorite changed with age and a developing palate. Several stand out in my mind, one of which was a yeast raised jelly-roll topped with glaze and a sprinkling of chopped peanuts. In essence, it amounted to a ‘peanut butter and jelly sandwich’ roll. Fast forward 
It took awhile but I finally got around to making the 