Cast Iron
by: thirschfeld
May18,2010
4
1 Ratings
- Serves 4 to 6
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
I created this bread for two things, Pain Perdu and Monte Christo sandwiches but it is great, just plain, with tea. As far as Pain Perdu I think it is a dish of economy and should be made with stale day old slices of leftover bread and should be unadorned by any cloying sauces. Powdered sugar should be all you need. This bread can be easily adapted to other dried fruits depending on your whims. —thirschfeld
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- 3/4 cuphot water
- 1/2 cupcold whole milk
- 2 teaspoonsdry active yeast
- 2 tablespoonslard, it gives a satiny texture to the crumb that only it can, sub soft unsalted butter if you have to
- 1 teaspooncinnamon
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 teaspoonskosher salt
- 3 cupsall purpose flour, plus more as needed
- 1/2 cupamaranth flour
- 4 teaspoonssugar
- 1 1/4 cupsdried blueberries
- 1 1/2 teaspoonslemon zest
- 4 tablespoonsunsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cupwhole milk
- powdered sugar for dusting
Directions
- In the bowl of a mixer combine the water and 1/2 cup of milk. Test it with your finger to make sure it is about body temperature. If it is to hot let it cool.
- Sprinkle the yeast across the top and let it bloom.
- Add the sugar, salt, lard, cinnamon and sugar. Add the flours, blueberries, 1 egg and the zest. With a dough hook mix until the gluten has formed. Add more all purpose flour if the dough is to sticky. Remove the dough from the bowl and kneed it a couple of times to work the blueberries to the center.
- Place the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover and sit in a warm draft free place. Let rise until doubled, about two hours.
- Punch down and remove the dough from the bowl and kneed a couple of times. Split the dough in half. You should have two 1 1/4 lb loaves. Shape the loves and place them into oiled and floured loaf pans. Let rise until it reaches the top of the loaf pan. About and hour. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn them out onto a cooling rack. Let the loaves cool completely.
- Have some friends over for tea and serve the bread with a few other snacks. Then with the leftovers, slice 8 to 12 slices about 3/4 of an inch thick. Leave them out overnight to stale.
- Combine the remaining milk and two eggs. Mix to combine. You need to do the next step in conjunction with heating of your saute pan so that the bread doesn't soak up to much egg and milk although you do want it to be moist all the way through.
- Place only as many slices of bread into the egg milk mixture as you can fit into the saute pan. Let the bread soak for a few seconds and then turn to coat the other side. In a large cast iron or non stick saute pan placed over medium high heat melt the butter until bubbling.
- Add the bread to the pan and brown on each side taking care to watch the heat so that both sides brown and the inside of the bread cooks through.
- If you are making this for a group of people make sure to preheat your oven to 250 degrees and keep the pain perdu warm while cooking all the servings you need. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Tags:
- Bread
- Fruit
- Grains
- Blueberry
- Lemon
- Milk/Cream
- Serves a Crowd
- Cast Iron
- Spring
- Summer
- Easter
- Mother's Day
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14 Reviews
Ceege January 28, 2013
What does it mean "mix until gluten forms?" Thanks.
thirschfeld January 28, 2013
Gluten is what forms when wheat is kneaded with liquid. Or is what makes the dough elastic which then traps the yeast bubbles causing the dough to rise.
Oui, C. May 23, 2010
Mmmmm....love the idea of this creative loaf that you use to make all sorts of wonderful things. Lemon and blueberries are hard to beat together, and your photo is FAB!
drbabs May 19, 2010
Yum...I love the combination of lemon and blueberries.
mrslarkin May 19, 2010
Dang. That thing is beautiful.
monkeymom May 19, 2010
Looks so great. I'm curious about the amaranth flour as I have never used it. What qualities does it add to the bread? Thanks!
thirschfeld May 19, 2010
It is an ancient seed from the America's. Seeds were found in Aztec ruins, they sprouted them and now we have amaranth flour again. I think it has a nutty flavor but many think it is woodsy and earthy. It has twice the fiber of wheat, huge amounts of lysine. It has no gluten so you can't use it on its own for bread but it also helps to extend shelf life.
monkeymom May 20, 2010
Sold! It will be added to my ever expanding stock of flours and grains. Looking forward to trying it out. Thank you again.
Margy@hidethecheese May 18, 2010
The blueberry-lemon combination sounds lovely.
Lizthechef May 18, 2010
I need to hire her as a consultant - only half-joking.
thirschfeld May 20, 2010
Oh she definitely has very strong opinions and will let you know
testkitchenette May 18, 2010
I love the addition of amaranth flour!
Lizthechef May 18, 2010
Your recipe looks terrific, chef - think you need to edit the amaranth flour measurement, though?
thirschfeld May 18, 2010
Yes, it still needs some editing. My daughter saw fit to submit it before I had finished with it. LOL gotta love kids she knows more about computers than I do already.
