Печём домашний хлеб - полезно и не сложно

Вы когда-нибудь пробовали испечь свой хлеб? Если нет, то давайте попробуем. Это совсем не сложно. Все, что вам понадобится это немного терпения и чугунная кастрюля с плотно прилегающей крышкой.

Хлеб, который продается в магазинах зачастую не самый свежий и вкусный. В какой-то момент мы набрели на статью в газете Нью Йорк Таймс, где рассказывалось о том, как испечь хлеб в домашних условиях без хлебопечки. Мы решили попробовать и оказалось, что это совсем не сложно. При этом результат превзошел все наши ожидания! Такого вкусного хлеба мы наверное никогда еще не ели. Было особенно приятно, что испекли мы его сами, своими руками!



Вам понадобятся:
500 гр. неотбелённой муки высшего сорта
375 гр. воды (75% веса муки)
1 и 1/2 чайной ложки соли
1/4 чайной ложки сухих дрожжей

Чтобы хлеб получился воздушным и сдобным его необходимо выпекать в толстой чугунной кастрюле с плотно прилегающей крышкой (утятнице).

Секрет выпечки домашнего хлеба - в точности измерений! Чтобы хлеб получился, надо очень точно отмерить пропорцию муки и воды. Именно поэтому и вода и мука приводятся в граммах. Вес воды должен составлять 75% веса муки.



Процесс приготовления:
В отдельной кастрюле или миске легонько перемешайте муку, воду, соль и дрожжи. Достаточно просто дать муке немного намокнуть. Накройте миску полотенцем и забудьте про нее на 15-18 часов. Желательно, чтобы кастрюля стояла в месте с комнатной температурой. За это время дрожжевая культура разрастется до нужных размеров. Через 15-18 часов на поверхности муки вы увидите много больших пузырей. Наш хлеб готов к выпеканию!

Чуть чуть присыпьте ваш хлеб мукой и выложите его из миски на стол. Сформируйте из массы круглую булку. Накройте булку полотенцем и дайте постоять 1,5 - 2 часа.

Поставьте чугунную кастрюлю в духовку и разогрейте вашу духовку до 260 С. Кастрюля должна нагреться. Очень важно, чтобы на чугунной кастрюле не было пластмассовых ручек, иначе они расплавятся. Чугунная кастрюля будет очень горячей и поэтому надо очень аккуратно вынимать ее из духовки!

Аккуратно переложите вашу булку в горячую чугунную кастрюлю. Накройте кастрюлю крышкой и выпекайте в течение 30 минут. После этого снимите крышку, убавьте температуру духовки до 215 С и выпекайте еще 15 минут, чтобы корка хлеба подрумянилась.

Вот и все! В нашей семье этот хлеб съедается моментально! Мы заметили, что друзья стали чаще заглядывать к нам в гости. Уж не хлеб ли этому причиной?

Удачного вам выпекания!

Lampwork beads handmade by glass artist Katerina Koroleva

Handmade lampwork always fascinated me! There are amazing artists out there who turn glass into art beads of different shapes, colors and sizes. I can easily imagine people collecting glass beads as some of them are as beautiful as gem stones. I've recently came across lampwork of glass artist Katerina Koroleva of MayaHoney. She works in her own studio creating totally amazing glass beads. Katerina was kind enough to share her aspirations and inspirations.



My name is Katerina and I'm a Russian artisan currently living with my family in Slovakia (EU). I started lampworking in 2008 after my daughter was born. I'm now a proud member of American organizations: Self Representing Artists in lampwork and Self Representing Artists in Jewelry Design.



I create glass beads out of my studio in Slovakia which is a beautiful country located right in the middle of Europe. Slovakia is known for its manufacturing traditions. It's a close neighbor of Czech Republic famous for its glass beads and traditions of glass making. Bohemian crystal glass of Bohemia region is known all over the world.



I always dreamed about living in a small town or a village surrounded by nature. My dream has finally come true a few years ago. The place we live in right now is a huge source of inspiration for me. We live next to the most beautiful lake Slnava that looks and smells like the sea. Our house is surrounded by woods with plenty of squirrels, hairs, foxes and even bears. So I just try to replicate in my organic beads all designs nature displays to me every day.



I just adore the sea and you can track sea-ocean theme in my lampwork beads. I make a lot of shells, starfishes etc. I just love to make my customers happy. When I think of how many people own my jewelry and beads - oh, it's a really good feeling, trust me!

Artisan rye bread Russian style

My husband Andrei is an avid artisan bread baker. He bakes all sorts of breads including baguettes and focaccia breads. However, our all time favorite is Russian style dark rye artisan bread. That's the bread we grew up with and the one that's impossible to find in any grocery store around. We would like to share the recipe with all the bread baking enthusiasts and bread lovers.

Ingredients:
300g rye flour
250g unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
100g mother starter at 100% hydration (i.e., consisting of 50g flour and 50g water)
370g water

Notes:

It's great if you have scales at home as bread making requires a high level of precision.
Give your mother starter a feeding 12-24 hours before you start. It makes sense to keep the starter at 100% hydration, i.e., to add equal amounts of water and flour by weight.

The process of mixing and baking:

In a bowl, mix flours and salts with hands. Add starter and mix in, breaking up starter to small chunks and mixing thoroughly with flour. Transfer to a Kitchenaid mixing bowl, knead using the hook attachment on medium-low speed for 5 minutes (or knead on a flat surface with floured hands). Coat a plastic or glass bowl with spraying oil, transfer dough, cover, let rise for 12 hours. Coat a bread pan with spraying oil. Transfer dough to a floured surface, shape into a cylinder equal in length to the bread pan. Transfer to the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for two hours. Pre-heat oven to 375F. Remove plastic wrap, and brush dough lightly with water, being careful not to de-gas it in the process. Bake for 45-50 mins, or until internal temperature reaches 200F. Remove from pan immediately, let cool. Slice and enjoy!

Rye bread is very healthy. It tastes great and stays fresh for up to a week. Back in Russia we eat it with all sorts of spreads including sour cream, butter, mayonnaise but the all time favorite is a slice of a fresh rye bread just sprinkled with a bit of salt.

Artisan bread recipe for your holiday dinner

Have you ever tried to bake your own bread? It's not as complicated as you might think. All it takes is time and a dutch oven. It can be a great addition to your holiday dinner as it not only tastes good it looks fantastic!

We love nice and fresh artisan bread the type you cannot find in regular supermarkets. That's why my husband made a simple research on-line one day and found a great New York Times article about baking simple artisan bread at home. We tried to bake our own and the result exceeded all our expectations. From that time on our home baked artisan bread is a staple in our house and my kids simply cannot do without it. We try to bake it once or twice a week as it doesn't last long in our family!


This bread is relatively simple to cook. You will need 500 gr. of unbleached bread flour, 375 gr. of water or 75% of the flour weight, 1 and 1/2 tea spoons of salt and 1/4 tea spoon of yeast. To bake it right you will need a dutch oven that can be actually used for cooking a lot of other fantastic dishes later on.

The secret is in precise measurements! The water amount should not exceed 75% of the flour weight!


We mix up all ingredients just enough for flour to get wet and put the mixture aside for 15-18 hours depending on your room temperature. We, thus, give yeast enough time to work on flour in a natural and old fashioned way.

After full 15-18 hours our raw bread is pretty much ready. We create a baker’s envelop on a table and then form a loaf out of our mixture. The stove should be preheated to 500F and our dutch oven should be already inside hot and ready. If you plan on baking bread don't buy a dutch oven that has anything plastic on it. All this plastic will melt away! And please be careful with that hot dutch oven! It’s very very hot!

The actual cooking time is 30 minutes. After that we leave our dutch oven inside the stove for additional 15 minutes but take the lid off for our bread to get a beautiful and crunchy top crust. It makes sense to decrease the stove temperature to around 420F so that our bread doesn't burn.



That's pretty much it. We always give our bread time to cool down although it is hard to do with our kids circling around. When you bake this artisan bread your home fills with unbelievable aromas that make you think of holidays, family gatherings and feasts.

This bread tastes very good and it's quite simple to bake. It's definitely worth trying!