Yeast breads with unusual hydration

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JustJoel

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Out of idle curiosity, I was googling yeast bread made with unusual ingredients. One that I came across was coffee raisin bread, which looks odd but very delicious. I also found a recipe for orange rosemary bread, which I’ll investigate more later. I also searched for bread made with soda (not baking soda, but Coke or, say, root beer). Not a lot of those. I wonder if the carbonation affects the rise adversely, or if soda is just too sweet.

Do any of you have yeast bread recipes with unusual hydration or other uncommon ingredients?
 
I've made this sweet potato-onion bread several times. It's a pretty color because of the sweet potato and very moist because of the caramelized onions and high hydration. It spread a lot the first time I made it, so now I make it in two cake pans, like focaccia. In fact, I think it's a version of focaccia. Vivian Howard serves it in her restaurant as an appetizer with gorgeous Cherokee tomatoes.

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2019/01/sweet-potato-and-caramelized-onion-bread.html

I think the acidity of soda would kill the yeast.
 
I've made this sweet potato-onion bread several times. It's a pretty color because of the sweet potato and very moist because of the caramelized onions and high hydration. It spread a lot the first time I made it, so now I make it in two cake pans, like focaccia. In fact, I think it's a version of focaccia. Vivian Howard serves it in her restaurant as an appetizer with gorgeous Cherokee tomatoes.

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2019/01/sweet-potato-and-caramelized-onion-bread.html

I think the acidity of soda would kill the yeast.
This looks absolutely delicious! It’s next on my “try it” list, as soon as I assemble all the ingredients. I’m guessing I can caramelize the onions and roast the sweet potatoes the night before, too.

I’ll bet this is great with whole wheat flour, too!

Thanks GG!
 
Something that I haven't made for years, but was very good, was English Muffin Bread, which was a batter bread, which was risen once, stirred down, then a small amount of dissolved soda was stirred into the batter, before it was risen in the pan, then baked. When sliced, the open crumb of the bread looked like an English Muffin, and had that flavor of an English Muffin.
 
Something that I haven't made for years, but was very good, was English Muffin Bread, which was a batter bread, which was risen once, stirred down, then a small amount of dissolved soda was stirred into the batter, before it was risen in the pan, then baked. When sliced, the open crumb of the bread looked like an English Muffin, and had that flavor of an English Muffin.
This sounds interesting, but I’m assuming you mean baking soda? I was wondering more about doughs that use actualsoda, as in “soda pop. Your bread sounds a lot like an Irish soda bread. Gotta love that English muffin flavor, right?

Do you have a recipe?
 
This sounds interesting, but I’m assuming you mean baking soda? I was wondering more about doughs that use actualsoda, as in “soda pop. Your bread sounds a lot like an Irish soda bread. Gotta love that English muffin flavor, right?

Do you have a recipe?
It would be sort of hard to dissolve soda pop! lol

That recipe from KAF is similar, but mine has a first rise of the batter in the bowl. Then the same amount of baking soda (1/4 tsp) is dissolved in 1 tb water, and mixed in.

I remember the loaves dropping later in the baking, when I first tried it, so I tried bread flour, which seemed to have too much gluten, and the crumb was far too open. So after that, I tried just 1 cup of bread flour, which worked best. The KAF regular flour might work well, since it has more gluten than normal unbleached flours.

I'll post the recipe when I go up later.
 
Out of idle curiosity, I was googling yeast bread made with unusual ingredients. One that I came across was coffee raisin bread, which looks odd but very delicious. I also found a recipe for orange rosemary bread, which I’ll investigate more later. I also searched for bread made with soda (not baking soda, but Coke or, say, root beer). Not a lot of those. I wonder if the carbonation affects the rise adversely, or if soda is just too sweet.

Do any of you have yeast bread recipes with unusual hydration or other uncommon ingredients?

There are breads that are made with beer. I guess the yeast in the hops is supposed to make the bread rise. Either I got old beer or they don't make it the way they used to because the bread I tried to make with beer didn't rise at all and ended up looking like some sad pita bread.

I have a recipe for a baguette that uses 80% hydration. I couldn't get it to not stick to everything and I tried every method known to man and YouTube. I even watched a video where you lift the dough and slap it on the counter. It worked for the French chef, but not for me. I should have charged for that entertainment, though.
 
When I was first getting into bread baking, I used to clean out the kegs from parties, and save the beer in my freezer, for using in bread, and other cooking uses. In bread, it adds flavor that much longer rising results in - I rarely use it now, but it was free then, and it cut a lot of time off rising. I usually only used up to half beer to half water - too much alcohol is not good. However, I always added yeast - I never used just the beer for the rising.
 
Out of idle curiosity, I was googling yeast bread made with unusual ingredients. One that I came across was coffee raisin bread, which looks odd but very delicious. I also found a recipe for orange rosemary bread, which I’ll investigate more later. I also searched for bread made with soda (not baking soda, but Coke or, say, root beer). Not a lot of those. I wonder if the carbonation affects the rise adversely, or if soda is just too sweet.

Do any of you have yeast bread recipes with unusual hydration or other uncommon ingredients?
I finally made the coffee raisin bread. I don’t like black coffee, so I added a half cup of whole milk. It made an incredibly wet dough (it was more like a batter), so I had to add quite a bit of flour during the kneading. It’s also my opinion that there weren’t enough raisins.

It was good, but I found it to be more salty than coffee flavored. And the crust browned too quickly; by the time I noticed, it was too late to cover it with foil. It was almost but not quite burned. The crumb was alright, though.

This would be very good with some sour cream and maybe some fruit on top. I’ll make it again, perhaps without the milk.
 
Milk contains sugar - lactose - so adding it will cause the bread to brown more, and adding extra liquid will make a wetter dough. If you don't like coffee, I'd suggest replacing some of the coffee with milk rather than just adding it.
 
Milk contains sugar - lactose - so adding it will cause the bread to brown more, and adding extra liquid will make a wetter dough. If you don't like coffee, I'd suggest replacing some of the coffee with milk rather than just adding it.
I didn’t say I don’t like coffee. I said I don’t like black coffee!

The rest of it I already know. I added liquid (milk) because the recipe looked a bit dry, in print. You’re right, of course. Next time, I’ll replace some of the coffee with milk, and I’ll cover the loaf with foil to retard the browning. And I’ll reduce the salt.
 
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