9882 Grit Guide to Home Baking

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Cast Iron for the Country Kitchen

Five bloggers share their favorite bread recipes, tips, and time savers.

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Cook It in Cast Iron

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Easy, No-Knead Bread

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Reasons Why Your Bread Dough Doesn’t Rise

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Baking Bread in Five Minutes a Day

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Good to the Last Slice

Use these 10 whole-grain baking techniques without fear of ruining your favorite recipes.

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Any Way You Slice It

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To Bake the Best Bread, Grind Your Own Grain

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Gluten-Free Goodies

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Milling About

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Something Sweet

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Bake up Herbal Breads for the Smell of Home

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Flatbread Fiesta

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Begging for Bagels

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Recipe Index

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Recommended Resources

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You Too Can Bake Bread

Methods guaranteed to make everyone a baker!

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How one wife, mother, farmer, and writer puts fresh homemade bread on the dinner table daily.

Guide to Whole Grain Baking

Healthy reasons you should consider grinding your own grain at home.

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Take your baking a step further with a home grain mill that produces delicious flour.

Sprouted Grains for Baking Add sprouted grains to baked goods for extra protein, vitamins, and minerals without excess calories.

Beautiful Breads Sourdough seems to get all the love—give yeasted bread a turn in the limelight with these stenciled designs.

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Daily Breads: Potato, Oatmeal, White, and Rye With a Starter

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Make flavorful sandwich bread out of quality ingredients to save money and warm a gathering or just your kitchen for the day.

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Sourdough Simplified Make delicious homemade bread whenever you please with these easy-to-follow instructions.

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GRIT’s Guide to Home Baking

Make your kitchen cookware count with the most useful pieces of cast iron.

Create mouthwatering meals using your cast-iron cookware.

An experienced baker provides insight on the frustrating obstacle to baking great bread.

Make the most of your daily bread with these hearty, homey recipes that transform leftover to luscious.

Homemade pies are the ultimate dessert.

Going gluten-free is easier than you think.

A touch of sugar adds a touch of home to delicious breads.

Of course, man cannot live by bread alone. Add some herbs!

Call it tortilla, naan, matzo, or crackers, there’s a version in every culture.

Sweet or savory, these versatile recipes can fill the hole in any of your meals.

A list of all the recipes that appear in this year’s baking guide.

Everything you need to start baking the best bread in your own kitchen.

You Too

Can Bake Bread Five bloggers share their favorite bread recipes, tips, and time savers.

Compiled by Grit Staff

12 Steps for Troubleshooting Bread Dough

By Loretta Sorensen If you’re just beginning your bread baking adventures, you may benefit from understanding a few basic facts about what contributes to producing a satisfactory loaf.

These basic principles are true of nearly all types of yeast breads.

1. You must use fresh ingredients to achieve optimum results. This is true of nearly any type of recipe, but don’t sabotage your baking efforts by using flour or yeast that is more than one year old. If either of these ingredients hasn’t been stored correctly, it will have an undesirable taste and will likely not rise or bake as fresher ingredients will.

2. Yeast thrives in a temperature range between 105 and 110degrees Fahrenheit. It will function down to a temperature of 90 degrees. However, its activity will be much slower, and it’s

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Grit’s Guide to Home Baking

not nearly as likely to reach its potential for boosting your final bread rise. Use a digital thermometer (or any household thermometer) to warm your recipe liquid to this range.

3. Temperatures over 115 degrees Fahrenheit will kill the yeast. This is desirable during baking, but not as the dough rises.

4. When salt comes in direct contact with yeast, the yeast dies. Your bread requires salt as part of the rising process.

So blend the salt with the flour to avoid direct contact with the yeast.

5. Gluten in your flour is involved in your bread’s rise and the final texture of your loaf. It needs to be activated by the action of kneading. You can use a bread machine, mixer, or knead by hand.

6. The advantages of a bread machine include the fact that you can prepare and add all your ingredients and allow the machine to do the work. A machine can knead far more thoroughly than either a mixer or a person. The bread machine also helps maintain the warmth of your dough throughout the knead/rest/knead cycle.

7. Regardless of your kneading preference, you should knead your dough no less than 10 minutes for each kneading cycle. Don’t knead it more than 18 minutes, as over-kneading will negatively affect gluten action and your final rise.

8. If you bake your dough in the oven, you must coat the pan with a non-stick

product such as butter, oil, aerosol spray, etc. Keep in mind that a baked loaf will readily stick to a glass pan and slip out of a metal pan more easily.

9. The size of your bread pan will affect the rise of your loaf. A pan that is larger than 9-by-5 will produce a flatter loaf. An ideal bread pan size for a twopound loaf is 81/2-by-41/2.

10. During the final rise, give yeast every opportunity to reach its greatest height by keeping it in an environment (your oven is ideal) at a temperature of at least 80 degrees and not more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t keep your oven on during the rise. Just warm it prior to setting the dough inside.

11. Cool your bread on a cooling rack. If necessary, use a makeshift rack by suspending the bread over a pan or between a couple packages of food, etc.

Otherwise, the bottom of your loaf will be soggy.

12. Consider using a bread keeper stored in your refrigerator because bags in the refrigerator can gather moisture.

Make English Muffins on the Griddle

By Wendy Akin When it’s too hot here in Texas to use the oven for very long, I turn to baking some breads on a griddle. An electric fry pan or griddle that allows you to set the temperature works best for these yummy muffins.

GETTY IMAGES/FCAFOTODIGITAL

As

you prepare to begin your exciting, bread-making adventure, four Grit bloggers offer advice and outstanding variations on traditional bread recipes.

These bread makers and lovers will guide you through making deliciously, flavorful Stromboli, stove-top English muffins, health-conscious zucchini bread, and yummy whole-grain artisan bread.

We can griddle-bake English muffins superior in quality and flavor to storebought and save quite a bit of money with little work. I figure these homemade English muffins cost about 10 cents each, using the best-quality flour.

Making up your own breakfast sandwiches will be an even greater saving.

Toast English muffins for breakfast with your homemade jam and use them to make breakfast, lunch, or even supper sandwiches with bacon, ham or sausage, egg, and cheese. Use muffins under creamed chicken à la king. When English muffins are this quick and inexpensive to make, you’ll come up with more ideas.

You can make English muffins without any special equipment, freeform in a stovetop skillet, but an electric fry pan or griddle and muffin rings will give you a traditional finished look. I have just four rings and that’s fine—they bake so quickly it’s all done in less than a half hour. You can order rings from King Arthur or Amazon, or even make your own, cutting 1 inch slices from a can of the appropriate size, about 3½ inches in diameter. Be careful of sharp edges.

I use my stand mixer with the dough hook. Even though the dough is wet, it still needs a lot of mixing. I mix up the starter, pull a plastic bag over the bowl, then continue on in the morning. Less work, less fuss, less cleanup.

2 teaspoons baking powder 6 ounces (¾ cup) warm whole milk (baby bottle warm) A little soft butter Optional: a little cornmeal if your griddle is not non-stick

Homemade English Muffins

3 In mixer bowl, add all dry ingredients to the starter and give a quick stir.

Add warm milk, turn mixer to “stir” until dough comes together, then continue on #4 setting for another 5 minutes. Scrape beater, cover bowl, and set aside on counter for at least 1 hour, until doubled in volume and quite puffy.

4 Set up griddle and heat to 350 F. With pastry brush and a bit of soft butter, lightly grease muffin rings. Set rings on griddle and, if griddle is not nonstick, put a pinch of cornmeal in each.

5 Fill muffin rings about ⅔ full. Use an ice cream scoop or just a big spoon.

Keep a small bowl of water next to the scoop or spoon, dip scoop in water before dropping batter into ring. Wet the scoop each time so the batter doesn’t stick to it.

6 Bake muffins for about 10 minutes until they begin to look dry on top.

Yields 8 to 10 muffins

STARTER: 6 ounces (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour Pinch of instant yeast 6 ounces (3/4 cup) water 1 Stir starter ingredients together to make a smooth batter.

2 Cover bowl and set it on the counter to develop for at least 4 hours, better if overnight.

DOUGH: 7½ ounces all purpose flour (not quite 1 cup) Use part white or traditional whole wheat if you like.

1 teaspoon instant yeast 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 2 tablespoons non-diastatic malt powder (or cane sugar)

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1 In large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, yeast, and sugar.

2 Add water, and stir with large rubber spatula until you have a

Baguette

Prepare to become addicted: This baguette is unlike a traditional baguette in that it’s soft and flavorful—you can easily tear off chunks from the loaf.

It’s perfect for dipping in olive oil or spreading with butter—or even on its own, thanks to the olive oil and salt on top. It’s also good for sandwiches, and it makes a great base for bruschetta.

To make this bread, you’ll need a baguette pan. Matfer blued steel pans from France are a great choice. You can find them online through specialty baking sites or Amazon.

3 cups bread flour 1 ⁄2 teaspoon salt 1 ⁄4 teaspoon active dry yeast 3 ⁄4 teaspoon sugar

11⁄2 cups cool water Extra-virgin olive oil and flaked kosher salt

thoroughly mixed, wet, sticky mass of dough.

3 Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, for 12 to 18 hours.

4 After 12 to 18 hours have passed, your dough should be dotted with bubbles and more than doubled in size. Dust wooden cutting board with bread flour and, using plastic dough scrapers, scrape dough loose from sides of bowl and turn out onto board in one piece. Using dough scrapers, fold dough over and onto itself a few times to form a neat round of dough.

5 Pour a little olive oil into bowl, and brush surface of dough with oil.

Sprinkle on a few pinches of kosher salt, then cover loosely with clean cotton or linen tea towel. Let dough rise for another 1 to 2 hours.

6 About 30 minutes before last rise is complete, heat oven to 475 F. 7 Once oven has reached 475 F, brush some olive oil in baguette pan, coating all surfaces thoroughly. Uncover bread and, using dough scrapers, cut dough circle in half. Separate halves and, using scrapers again, gradually work dough to elongate each piece to 12 inches. (You may have to fold the ends under or stretch it a bit with your hands to get an even baguette. Just don’t overwork it or obsess about perfect shape.)

8 Dust hands with flour, then transfer each piece to baguette pan, stretching a little as you move it. Brush olive oil over top of each baguette, and sprinkle a little more Kosher salt. Bake for 15 minutes.

9 Remove from oven and slide onto cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Recipe from Plowing With Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions, by Oscar H. Will III and Karen K. Will.

No-Knead Ciabatta Bread

FINAL DOUGH (DAY 2): 21⁄2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 13⁄4 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1 ⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast 1 ⁄2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, room temperature 2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil

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Grit’s Guide to Home Baking

ON DAY 1: 1 Two days (48 hours) before serving bread, prepare starter by stirring together flour, yeast, and water in small bowl. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

ON DAY 2: 2 After 24 hours, prepare final dough by whisking together flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in large bowl. Add water, oil, and starter, and stir with dough whisk or spoon until mixture just comes together into wet, sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap; let sit for 19 hours at room temperature.

3 Using a wooden spoon, stir dough a couple of strokes. Cover with plastic wrap; let rest for 2 additional hours.

4 Lightly spray 17-by-11-by-1-inch baking sheet with baking spray. Line sheet with parchment paper, and lightly flour (about 1 teaspoon) in spots where loaves will go.

21⁄2 cups bread flour 1 ⁄2 cup cocoa powder 1 ⁄2 cup dried tart cherries 1 ⁄2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips 1 ⁄4 cup chopped walnuts

The Perfect Pot I began baking my bread in 5- or 6-quart cast-iron and/or enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens, but my gooey dough didn’t seem to fill the expanse of those pots, and I ended up with a flat, sometimes odd-shaped loaf. After stumbling upon a rare 31⁄2-quart enameled cast-iron Dutch oven at my local hardware store, I knew it was the perfect size just by eyeballing it. The bottom was smaller in circumference than the larger pots I was using, and the sides gently curved upward, giving the loaf a more defined shape and some needed rise. The only problem was that doggone plastic knob!

The plastic knobs on the lids of most cast-iron Dutch ovens will melt in a 475-degree oven. Here’s a simple fix: Replace it with a metal cabinet, or drawer-type knob from the hardware store. If its screw is too long for the lid, use washers or nip off the end of the screw to secure it tightly.

You can find a selection of 31⁄2-quart cast-iron Dutch ovens online by doing a search; they aren’t usually stocked on the shelves of local big-box stores or even specialty cooking stores.

The other unique item on the equipment list (see “Bread Booty” below) is the elusive plastic dough scraper—not to be found in town! Do a web search, and several will turn up on specialty and/or commercial-baking supply sites.

• 3 ⁄ -quart cast-iron pot 1

5 Turn dough out onto floured surface and sprinkle with lots of flour.

Shape dough into log, and cut in half. Transfer halves to prepared baking sheet, with logs set parallel with short end of pan. Press dough out to 10-by-4-inch rectangles. Dimple surfaces with floured fingertips.

Sprinkle each rectangle lightly with flour, then cover with floured tea towel or oil-sprayed plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours.

6 About 20 minutes before rise is complete, preheat oven to 450 F. 7 Uncover dough and place in oven on center rack. Reduce oven temperature to 425 F, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until crust is golden. Remove from oven and let bread cool on wire rack for about 1 hour.

8 Store bread, wrapped in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 2 days. This bread is best the day it’s baked, but can be reheated in a 350-degree oven until it crisps up again, about 10 minutes.

1 teaspoon cinnamon 11⁄4 teaspoons salt 1 ⁄2 teaspoon active dry yeast 1 ⁄2 cup buttermilk 11⁄4 to 11⁄2 cups cool water Coarse cornmeal for dusting

Use Bread Baking Method 2 on Page 16.

Bread Booty

Yields 2 loaves.

STARTER (DAY 1): 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1 ⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast 3 ⁄4 cup water, room temperature

Chocolate Cherry Bread

• • • • • • • • • • •

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with lid and metal knob (do not use a pot with a plastic knob, or it will melt in the oven) large mixing bowl dry measuring cups liquid measuring cup measuring spoons large rubber spatula 2 plastic dough scrapers large wooden or glass cutting board cotton or linen tea towels heavy-duty potholders sturdy wood or metal spatula cooling rack

A Note on Cleanup

Let’s face it, wet, sticky dough is hard to clean up. Instead of ruining your scrubbers and sponges—and taking the chance of clogging your sink—by attacking the problem directly, use these methods: Dirty dough bowl: Swirl a little water in the bowl. Dump it out. Wipe a dry paper towel all around the bowl, picking up all the bits of dough, and discard.

Tea towels: Pick off bits of dough before laundering.

Cutting board: Use your plastic dough scrapers to scrape up all the leftover dough bits before cleaning it with soap and water.

• • •

Order Plowing With Pigs and Other Creative, Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions by Oscar H. Will III and Karen K. Will by visiting www.grit.com/store.

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Guide to

BAKING

Use these 10 wholegrain baking techniques without fear of ruining your favorite recipes.

By Tabitha Alterman Whole grain flours are considered living foods. They can go bad and Alterman suggests you taste test your stored flours for freshness before baking.

When

I first started baking with whole grains, my endeavors were limited to replacing some portion of white flour with whole-wheat flour—the easiest introductory step into whole-grain baking. Now I bake almost exclusively with whole-grain flours and use a much wider variety of grains. I don’t expect these to be standins for white flour. Instead, I tailor recipes to their individual personalities.

Following are some of the time-tested tips I’ve discovered.

about whole wheat because they say they can detect bitterness, try this: 1. Replace a tablespoon of whatever liquid is in the recipe with orange juice, which balances wheat’s tannic flavors.

2. You should be absolutely sure your flour is fresh. Whole-grain flours are real, living foods. This means they can go bad. Taste a pinch to make sure it is faintly sweet with no noticeable mustiness or rancidity. Store wholegrain flours in airtight containers in the refrigerator or freezer.

1: Replace White Flour With Whole Wheat

2: Keep Bitterness at Bay

If someone in your family is finicky

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Grit’s Guide to Home Baking

3: Moisture on the Mind

TIM NAUMAN (2)

When your aim is to make standard white-flour recipes healthier, the easiest place to start is by substituting wholewheat flour. Begin your experiments by swapping about a quarter of the white flour with whole-wheat flour, then gradually increase the ratio with each successful recipe.

All whole-grain flours absorb more liquid than white flour. If you have changed the flour composition of a bread dough to include more whole wheat, for example, it is wise to add extra liquid a bit at a time, keeping in mind that you can always incorporate more liquid later.

With other recipes, such as muffins or cookies, just bump the liquid component up a smidgen.

4: Sweet Success

Fresh whole-wheat flour is naturally sweeter than white flour. If you are adapting a recipe to include more whole wheat, reduce the recipe’s sweetener just a tad. Replace a cup of sugar with a scant cup, for example. Don’t overdo it because sugar is usually an important ingredient for structure as well as flavor.

5: Define Your Purpose

Breads benefit when made with highprotein “hard” wheats. Pastries and desserts have better textures if prepared with low-protein “soft” wheat.

All-purpose flour, bleached or unbleached, is made from a blend of flours to achieve middle-of-the-road protein content that works adequately, but not necessarily best, for many purposes. If you are making a bread, replace the all-purpose flour with either regular whole-wheat flour or ideally with whole-wheat bread flour.

If you are making a dessert or pastry, replace the all-purpose flour with regular

whole-wheat flour or ideally with whole-wheat pastry flour. If a recipe calls for “cake flour,” go with wholewheat pastry flour.

6: To Gluten or Not to Gluten

You can adapt most recipes with any combination of flours you like as long as you keep their gluten content in mind. For most yeast bread recipes, your combination of flours must include at least half wheat flour for its gluten content. Gluten networks trap air bubbles to help breads rise. Flours that contain enough gluten to help breads rise include hard spring and winter wheat, soft wheat, Kamut, spelt, and triticale (a cross of wheat and rye).

Flours that contain a little, but not a lot, of gluten include barley, durum, einkorn, emmer, and rye.

7: Homemade White Flour

White flour has had its nutritious bran and germ mechanically removed. If www.Grit.com

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What to Sprout

Add sprouted grains to baked goods for extra protein, vitamins, and minerals without excess calories.

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Grit’s Guide to Home Baking

You trition and color to sandwiches, salads, stir-fries, and soups. Howprobably already know that alfalfa and mung bean sprouts add nu-

ever, sprouted wheat and other grains provide similar health benefits, as well as adding flavor and interesting texture to breads and other foods. As you think about your favorite holiday recipes, consider adding sprouted grains to your own repertoire.

In his book On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee says, “Sprouts have nutritional value midway between that of the dry seed, which they just were, and a leafy green vegetable, which they’re on their way to becoming.”

Sprouted grains and other seeds are lower in calories than most vegetables, and higher in protein; vitamin C; B-complex vitamins; and minerals such as iron, calcium, and potassium. The carbohydrates in sprouted grains are also more easily digested because of the enzymes activated during sprouting.

From top: Adobe Stock/Daniel Vincek/charlottelake; page 38: adobe stock/ Arkadiusz Fajer

Sprouted Grains for Baking

Technically, you can sprout any grain that’s whole, uncracked, and untreated. Wheat is the obvious choice for baking, but amaranth, hull-less barley, buckwheat, corn, einkorn, farro, kamut, millet, quinoa, rice, rye, sorghum, and spelt can all be easily sprouted.

Oats sprout well, but you’ll need to look for untreated oats specifically intended for sprouting; because oats are relatively high in fat, they’re often steam- or heattreated before drying, which will prevent the grain from sprouting.

Milling and cracking crush the germ inside grain, destroying the embryo plant, so they can’t sprout.

Likewise, grains that have been hulled, husked, pearled, rolled, or flaked won’t sprout. I recommend starting with wheat because it’s often easier to find as a whole grain than other choices, and it also sprouts reliably.

You can usually find common grains such as wheat, spelt, and rye in the bulk foods section of health or natural food stores

in your area. Untreated sprouting oats, einkorn, and other lessfamiliar grains may be harder to find locally, but can be purchased online (see “Where to Buy Whole Grains,” below).

Get Sprouting

Sprouting isn’t fermentation— you’re simply germinating grain, much like any other kind of seed, except you’re not going to grow mature plants. You want the grain to just barely sprout.

Use a small amount of grain, say ¼ cup, until you get the feel of the sprouting process. A little goes a long way; the grain will increase in weight by half again during the sprouting process, and you only need about ½ cup sprouted grains per loaf of bread.

You always should start out by rinsing the grain and picking out any stones or visible dirt. Put the rinsed grain into a container, and then you can cover it with room-temperature, non-chlorinated water—spring or filtered water is best. A ratio of about two parts water to one part grain is

Other Uses for Sprouted Grain If your sprouts are ready to bake, but you aren’t, then refrigerate them and use them up within a few days in salads, casseroles, or soups. Sprouted grains are a great treat for chickens or turkeys, too!

After you get used to the process of sprouting grains, I’m confident you’ll find that you enjoy taking one more step toward being in charge of your diet and health. Sprouted grains are an easy, inexpensive way to add nutrition and variety to many different foods. Here’s to a healthy diet that’s rich in whole grains!

Where to Buy Whole Grains Bob’s Red Mill www.bobsredmill.com Grain Place Foods www.grainplacefoods.com Organic Grains www.organicgrains.com Shiloh Farms www.shilohfarms.com

Sprouting grains is a simple way to increase the amount of nutrients available in your baked goods.

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transformation and muffins slide out with ease every time.

Contrary to popular belief, cast-iron cookware isn’t much more difficult to maintain than modern Teflon-coated or aluminum pans. Is cast iron heavy? Yes. Does it require a little TLC now and then?

Yes. However, the results of your recipes will far outweigh these little “inconveniences.”

If you are interested in cooking with cast iron, start out with some basic pieces such as a skillet, muffin tin, and the always popular Dutch oven. You can find discarded pieces at yard sales, auctions, or in your grandmother’s attic. With a little elbow grease and some care, you can bring your piece back to life. Modern pieces such as Lodge come pre-seasoned.

In both cases, once you’ve tasted a recipe prepared on cast iron, I’ll bet you will become hooked.

The following recipes use the basic cast-iron pieces I mentioned above. These recipes are easy to fix and my favorite.

Cook it in

CAST IRON Create mouthwatering meals using your cast-iron cookware.

Article and photographs

by Dawn Marie Crocker

Cast-ironmy own opinion, cookware is, in

the secret “ingredient” to great-tasting food. I cook and bake exclusively with cast iron, and whether it’s golden French toast or perfect pan-fried steaks, I always reach for one of my more than 50 pieces of vintage and modern castiron cookware.

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Grit’s Guide to Home Baking

I scout out discarded and abandoned pieces of cast-iron cookware at yard sales and auctions. A 100-year-old rusty Griswold muffin pan came home with me for a pittance at a local auction.

After a thorough scrub with coarse salt and a halved potato, I wiped it out with a damp dish towel to remove all the salt and then generously coated the muffin pan with bacon grease. After baking it in the oven at 325 degrees for three hours, the result was an amazing

Starboard Farm Classic Maine Blueberry Muffins Yields 12 muffins.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 ⁄4 teaspoon salt 1 cup vanilla yogurt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 large egg 1 ⁄2 cup coconut oil or cooking oil 1 ⁄2 cup sugar, plus additional for garnish 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup fresh (or frozen and slightly thawed) Maine wild blueberries, or locally available variety 1 Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease cast-iron muffin tin.

2 In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3 In medium bowl, combine vanilla yogurt and baking soda; set aside.

4 In large bowl, beat egg. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla, stir to combine. Alternate adding flour and yogurt mixtures to egg mixture, stirring until just blended.

Carefully fold in blueberries.

5 Pour batter into muffin pan and sprinkle additional sugar atop each muffin. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until muffins are golden brown. Remove and cool.

Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Dutch Oven Bread Yields 1 loaf.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 ⁄2 teaspoon active dry yeast 13⁄4 cups lukewarm water 1 teaspoon salt 1 ⁄2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil) 1 tablespoon dried basil 1 In large bowl, combine all ingredients

and stir until blended. The mixture will be very wet. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature overnight or for at least 12 hours.

2 Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Sprinkle dough with flour and fold it over onto itself once or twice. Cover with light dish towel and let rise for 2 hours.

3 Preheat oven to 450 F and place a 3- to 5-quart cast-iron Dutch oven in oven while preheating. (The size of the Dutch oven will determine how thick your bread will be in the center; use a smaller Dutch oven for thicker loaves and a larger Dutch oven for thin loaves.

Adjust baking time accordingly.)

4 Carefully remove Dutch oven from heat and generously brush inside with olive oil. Transfer dough to Dutch oven, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove lid and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and slice.

Wilma’s Ledge Curried Halibut

Recipe by Dawn Marie Crocker & Ben Crocker Jr. Yields 4 servings.

STARBOARD FARM SPICE MIX: 2 tablespoons dried parsley 3 tablespoons paprika 2 tablespoons kosher salt 2 teaspoons onion powder 2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon thyme CURRIED HALIBUT: 1 cup breadcrumbs or panko 1 ⁄2 teaspoon curry powder 1 teaspoon Starboard Farm spice mix Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed to coat cast-iron skillet 2 pounds fresh halibut fillets Salt, to taste Pepper, to taste 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted 1 Preheat oven to 425 F. 2 To make spice mix: In

medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until well blended.

3 To make halibut: In medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, curry powder, and spice mix; set aside.

4 On the stovetop, heat large castiron skillet over high heat and coat with olive oil. Season halibut with salt and pepper on both sides, and add to skillet skin side down. Cook for 4 minutes and turn fillets carefully. Cook an additional 4 minutes and turn again so skin side is down.

5 Top fillets with breadcrumb mixture and pour melted butter evenly over breaded fillets.

6 Transfer to the oven and bake for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately. www.Grit.com

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