Maybe pumpkin and cranberry-orange

I'm having so much fun with savory breads, it got me thinking about other flavors. Normally I don't eat cake or pie. The only pie I like is pumpkin pie during thanksgiving. I came across this cranberry orange loaf recipe which looks interesting. If I do it, I'll modify it so it has a lot less sugar. Another potential flavor combination is lemon and poppy from the same http://www.bhg.com .

One thing I don't eat regularly is rubarb. This ginger and rhubarb loaf recipe looks very interesting.

Sweet potato curry bread

Ingredients

2 medium size sweet potato
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups king arthur all purpose flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1-1.5 cups water

Start by peeling and cutting the sweet potato. Steam the sweet potato for about 15-20 minutes. It should be very tender. Add curry power, cinnamon, melted butter and mash. It doesn't have to be totally smooth and I find it is nice to have little chunks. This step can be done several hours in advance.

Take half the sweet potato mash and mix it with 3 cups of flour, brown sugar, salt and yeast. Depending on how wet your sweet potato mash is, you may need less water. Start by adding 1 cup of warm water and mix the dough. If it's too dry, add more water. You want a wet no-knead dough.

Let it rise for 12 hours. Turn the dough out on to your work surface and flatten it. Take out the remaining sweet potato mash and microwave it for 1 min. spread a thin layer over the dough and roll. This time I put it in a loaf pan, since my daughter wanted it as a regular loaf, so she could have toast. Let it rise for 1-1.5 hours. Bake at 350F for 45-60 minutes or until golden brown.

I forgot to oil the loaf pan and had a hard time getting it out. The flavor and aroma was great though. The sweet potato is slightly sweet with a good kick from the cinnamon and curry.

Crazy curry idea

I've been thinking about different variations for no-knead bread and last nite I came up with a crazy one. Often I make Goat curry with sweet potato and cocoanut milk. The curry goes great with rice and bread. In Japanese cuisine, there's curry bread.

My brain connected those two and thought, curry + sweet potato + bread could be good. A spice commonly used with sweet potato is cinnamon, so the idea morphed into curry + sweet potato + cinnamon + bread.

It sounds crazy, but I think it could be really delicious. The Taro bread I made turned out so well, I immediately thought about other roots that could go with bread. There's plenty of sweet potato bread recipes out there, though most of the ones I found were rather sweet. For example, saras secrets sweet potato bread with pecans has over 2 cups of sugar. The same with this Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread recipe on Epicurious.

Since I prefer savory flavors, combining sweet potato with curry should be a kick in the mouth, but in a good way.

Taro Bread

Ingredients

Taro Paste
16 oz frozen Taro root2 Tbsp sugar
8 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp peanut oil

Bread
3 Cups flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1.5 cups water

A couple of hours before you're ready to make the bread, take out the frozen taro. You can also use fresh taro and cut it into 1" thick pieces. Steam the Taro for about 15-20 minutes. It should be fork tender, meaning you can easily stick a fork in it. Melt 8 Tbsp butter and mash the taro root. Add the peanut oil and mix. You want the consistency of thick mashed potato. The paste shouldn't be wet or creamy like mashed potato. Let it cool.

Combine flour with 1 cup of tao paste and mix. Add salt and yeast and mix. Add 1.5 cups of warm water until you get a wet no-knead dough.

Cover and let it rise for 12 hours. After 12 hours, the dough should have tripled and have lots of holes.

Turn the dough out on your work surface. Take the remaining taro paste out of the and microwave it for 1 minute to heat it up. It should be warm, but not hot. Flatten the dough and spread the taro paste. Don't add too much. Shape the dough into a loaf. My loaf was quite soft, so I decided to rise it in the bowl instead of on the counter.

Preheat the dutch oven at 550 for 30-60 min. I usually start it once I've formed the loaf. Bake covered at 500 for 30, followed by 5-10min uncovered.

The dough was quite soft after rising for an hour, so it ended up looking funny :) The smell of taro is wonderful and fills the house.

Lessons learned

Today I made a cinnamon currant loaf. It was nice, but currants aren't as sweet as raisen. Raisen pair better with cinnamon than currants. Currants pair better with lemon and lime flavors. I think the next variation I'll try will be fresh lime juice with currants. Since I generally prefer savory to sweet, I tend to add very little or no sugar to my dishes. Of the various loafs I've tried so far, my favorite was Lemon Currant and banana nut. Cinnamon raisen is nice once in a while, but it's too sweet for my taste. One great thing about cinnamon raisen loaf is the next day, you can make french toast with it and it doesn't need syrup at all.

Another possible combination is banana chocolate loaf using coco powder. That way, you get the chocolate flavor without all the sugar. This week I plan to make a Taro loaf. Back when I lived in San Diego, Ranch 99 market used to have Taro Toast, which was very delicious. For my version I plan to use less sugar, probably only a tablespoon. Chinese dishes tend to be savory and sweet dishes aren't common. Most desserts in chinese cuisine are savory or spicey with a little bit of sweetness.

Olive Oregano Loaf

Here's the ingredients

3.5 cups king arthur all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1/4 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp oregano
1 3/4 cup water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, yeast, oregano and olives. Stir to mix the dry ingredients. Add the water and mix until you get a wet no knead dough.

Cover and let it rise for 12-14 hours. As the picture shows, the dough looks wet and lumpy.

After 12 hours, shape the dough into a loaf. I cover it with the mixing bowl and let it rise for 1 hour. Jim Lahey recommends putting a towel over it. The main thing is to keep it from getting dry and helping it rise. Preheat your dutch oven at 550. Bake for 30min at 500 covered. Remove lid and bake for another 5-15 minutes depending on the crust you like. My kids like a light crust, so I bake it uncovered for 3-4 min.

Banana Nut No Knead

The kids and I love banana nut bread. Being a cyclist, I eat a lot of bananas for the potassium. One nite I made up a story called "The banagel" where a man invents a banana nut bagel. The next day I googled to see if anyone sells banana nut bagel, but didn't find any. I did find 1 link to banana bagel, but it wasn't really banana nut flavor.

Here is the recipe

2 medium bananas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4-1/5 cup light brown sugar
4 cups white flour
1.5 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
1/4 tsp yeast

Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl. Add walnuts, vanilla, salt, and brown sugar. Stir it a little so it's mixed. Add the four and yeast. Add the warm water and mix. It should look like a normal no knead dough. You can find it on YouTube, just search for Jim Lahey.

Let it rise 12 hours. Turn it out on your surface and form into a loaf. Preheat the dutch oven at 550F for a hour while the loaf rises. After an hour is up, take the dutch oven out, remove lid and put the loaf in the pot. Cover the dutch oven and bake at 500F for 30 minutes.

If you want to use the bread for sandwiches, bake uncovered for 3-4min to get a crispy crust. If you like a hearty crust, bake uncovered for 10-15min.

Lemon Current Loaf

On a whim, I ran over some ideas for different breads with my daughter and we ended up with. To our surprise, it came out awesome.

1 cup whole wheat flour
2.5 cup white flour
1/2 cup currant
1 egg
1/4 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp lemon zest dried it fresh
1 tsp salt
1.5 cup water
1/2 tsp vinegar

First I mix the currants, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, lemon zest and yeast in the bowl. Next I added the flour. Mix the egg in a separate bowl and add to the flour mixture. Last is add the water. Since it's cold in New England, I use warm water instead of cold water.

Let it rise 12-14 hours in a warm place around 70F.

Preheat the cast iron/dutch oven in the oven at 550F. Turn the dough on the counter and shape into a round loaf. Let it rise for 1 hour.

Take the dutch over out, remove the lid and put the loaf in. Cover with lid and bake for 30min at 500F. If you want a soft crust, bake uncovered for 3 min. For hard crust, bake uncovered for 10-15min.

Thanks to Jim Lahey for his "No Knead" recipe. I've really enjoyed making bread for my family the last 2 months.