Walnut Boule Recipes

NO-KNEAD CRANBERRY WALNUT BREAD WITH HONEY

Steps:

• Start with a large bowl and a wooden spoon, and add your flour to the bowl. Measure the yeast and add it to one side of the bowl. Measure the salt and add it to the other side.
• Using a wooden spoon, stir the yeast into the flour on its side of the bowl first and then stir the salt into the flour on its side of the bowl. This will prevent the salt mixing directly with the yeast. Give the whole mixture a few good stirs to make sure everything is combined.
• Add the cranberries and walnuts to the flour mixture and toss well to coat, and to make sure they're distributed evenly throughout.
• Measure the water. Make sure the water is at room temperature; water that is too warm or too cold can kill the yeast and prevent the bread from rising at all. Add the honey to the water and stir with a fork to combine.
• Pour the water in and stir with a wooden spoon. The dough will be rough and a bit sticky, but that's normal.
• Stir until all the flour is combined. This is not normal bread dough (there's no kneading involved in this recipe), so you don't need to be too concerned about the appearance of the dough at this point. Just make sure the ingredients are combined well.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It's a good idea to ensure there's adequate space left in the bowl for the dough to at least double in size. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free place and let it rise for 12-18 hours.
• After the dough has risen for 12-18 hours, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (if you're using convection, 410 degrees. If your oven runs hot, 400 degrees). Place your Dutch oven with the lid on in the cold oven and let it heat up with the oven. If your dutch oven is black or dark-coloured on the inside, set your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 425. I recommend a 6 or 7-quart dutch oven for this recipe.
• Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it with flour so the dough doesn't stick to the paper. Rub flour on your hands and scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl, gathering it in your hands as best you can (it may feel kind of fluid and not at all like regular bread dough) and forming it into a circular loaf on the parchment paper. Don't worry if it still looks a little rough in places - this lends to the rustic look of this loaf. If your dough is very fluid, simply add an extra 1/4 to 1/3 cup of flour to the dough as you shape it.
• Once you have it shaped, the dough needs to undergo a second rise (much shorter than the first). The goal is to handle the dough as little as possible at this stage because any amount of tugging at the rough can cause it to deflate after it has undergone its second rise. The next few steps will help prevent this. But don't worry if it deflates a bit. This bread dough is pretty forgiving.
• Sprinkle flour over the top of the loaf and loosely cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming over the dough. The flour also prevents the plastic wrap from sticking to the dough so when you take it off at the end of the rise, it doesn't disturb the dough and wreck the rustic shape you've created. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes. Your oven will also be preheating during this time (and so will your pot).
• Once 45 minutes have passed remove the plastic wrap from the dough and trim the parchment paper into a circle closely around the dough. If it doesn't look like the dough has risen that much, don't worry about it. The loaf will puff up a bit when it hits the heat of the oven.
• Remove the preheated pot from the oven and transfer the dough into the pot as carefully as possible by handling only the parchment paper. Place the lid on the pot and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. Don't open the oven during this time, and certainly don't take the lid off the pot; the crispness of the crust develops because of the steam that builds up in the pot during this 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes have passed, remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for another 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes have passed, remove the pot with bread from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. You'll probably hear it crackling as it cools - this is normal. Brush a little extra honey on the top of the bread now, if desired.
• If you can, resist the urge to cut into the bread until it has pretty much cooled completely. The bread continues to bake on the inside even after it has been removed from the oven and cutting it too early could result in the inside becoming gummy or rubbery.

CLASSIC WALNUT BOULE

Steps:

• Dissolve sugar and yeast in 1 cup warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in oil. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 9.5 ounces (about 2 cups) bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes); add enough of remaining bread flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel sticky).
• Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, for 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; knead in walnuts. Shape dough into a 9-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Place dough on a large baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Uncover dough. Combine milk and egg white; brush over dough. Score dough by making two diagonal slits with a sharp knife; make two diagonal slits in the opposite direction to create a crosshatch pattern. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bread is browned on bottom and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

BREADMAN TALKING ARTISAN WHOLE WHEAT BOULE

Steps:

• Mix the dry ingredients (the flours. sugar, salt and yeast) together in a large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer until evenly distributed.
• Add the egg, oil and most of the water and mix to form a rough dough. Add water or flour to form a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Knead the dough in a mixer vigorously for about 10 minutes (or 15 minutes by hand), until the dough is very smooth and only slightly tacky.
• Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover with plastic wrap to rise until doubled. This will take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Take the dough from the bowl, and, trying desperately not to degas the dough too much, form the dough into a boule. This is best done by stretching the dough from the top away from you towards the bottom. After each stretch, turn the dough by about 45 degrees. When the dough is 'stretched, place it, folds on the bottom, onto a baking tray. Cover the boule with a damp kitchen towel to rest for about 45 minutes.
• Start heating the oven (400 F, 205 C) about 30 minutes before baking. Just before baking, slash the bread twice or three times with a serrated knife, spray with a little water and place in the oven.
• After about 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for a total of about 35 to 40 minutes. If you have a baking stone, you can move the boule from the baking sheet to the stone for the last 10 minutes of baking to give more crispiness to the crust.
• Cool on a rack.

WALNUT-DATE QUICK BREAD

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine the dates and water; let stand for 15 minutes (do not drain). In a bowl, cream butter and brown sugar; add egg and mix well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with dates and liquid. Stir in walnuts. , Pour into a greased 8x4-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.