Loaves of love

A family friend that we hold very dearly to our hearts just lost one of her loved ones. We feel the grief and the pain for her. Whenever I feel for someone, the desire to show my care drives me to cook for them some comfort food. That, according to my husband, is my love language---the way I tell people I love them. Thus come these loaves. It's a joy to make them; it's a joy to love.

For these loaves, I've prepared a 3-day pre-ferment using 2 cups of unbleached flour, 1 tp of active dry yeast, 1/2 tp salt and about 1 cup of water. This amount of pre-ferment is enough to make a medium sandwich loaf and all of these small loaves. The pre-ferment is described in my 13th experiment. These small loaves all together use about half the pre-ferment.

Preparation: Basic white dough using pre-ferment (total 3 cups of flour and 1.5 tp yeast)

Ingredients:
- half the pre-ferment (amounts to 1 cup of unbleached flour, 1/2 tp yeast, 1/4 tp salt, plus water)
- 2 cups white flour
- 1 tp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup + 3TB warm water

Procedure:
1. Dissolve the yeast in 2 TB warm water. Add to the flour. Mix in the pre-ferment. Slowly work on the mixture to incorporate all the flour into a dough, adding a small amount of water at a time. Once the dough is ready, allow it to rest until its volume has increased by 1.5 times. Then gently punch down the dough and cut it into three pieces.

Recipe: Red bean almond bread (one small loaf)

Ingredients:
- About 1/3 of the white dough
- 2TB red bean paste
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- 6 tp brown sugar
- About 1 TB water to thin the filling if necessary

Procedure:
1. To prepare the red bean paste, boil soaked red beans in 5 times its volume of water. Simmer for 1-2 hours or until the beans have softened and opened up. Boil the liquid to almost dry. Mash the beans.
2. Mix the red bean paste with almond meal and sugar. Then set aside until used.
3. Dust the counter with flour. Place a piece of dough on the counter. Dust both top and bottom of the dough with a little flour. Roll out the white dough into a sheet of less than 1/4" thick. While rolling, add  a little bit of pressure at a time. After each rolling, gently move the dough a little to prevent it from sticking to the counter. When done, allow the sheet to relax for a few minutes.
4. If the red bean almond filling is too dry, add a little water to soften it. Then spread the filling very thinly and uniformly on the sheet.
5. Roll up the sheet. Fold both ends downward and place in a small loaf pan to proof.
6. Pre-heat oven to 450F. Bake loaf at 400F for 15 minutes. (Note: high heat is needed for browning because the loaf is smaller. With low heat, the loaf could cook long before it browns.)
7. Allow to cool before slicing.

Recipe: Pesto bread (1 small loaf)

Ingredients:
- About 1/3 of the white dough
- 1 TB pesto sauce

Procedure:

1. Dust the counter with flour. Place a piece of dough on the counter. Dust both top and bottom of the dough with a little flour. Roll out the white dough into a sheet of less than 1/4" thick. While rolling, add  a little bit of pressure at a time. After each rolling, gently move the dough a little to prevent it from sticking to the counter. When done, allow the sheet to relax for a few minutes.

2. Spread pesto sauce thinly on the sheet.

3. Roll up the sheet. Fold both ends downward and place in a small loaf pan to proof.

4. Pre-heat oven to 450F. Bake loaf at 400F for 10-15 minutes. (Note: high heat is needed for browning because the loaf is smaller. With low heat, the loaf could cook long before it browns.)

5. Allow to cool before slicing.

Recipe: Sesame sweet buns (make 4, each about 2.5" to 3" wide)

Ingredients:
- About 1/3 of the white dough
- 1 egg
- 2 tp brown sugar
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1.5 TB butter
- 1 tp toasted sesame seeds
- 1/2 cup unbleached flour
- extra whole wheat flour, about 1/4 cup

Procedure:
1. Melt the butter. Add melted butter, salt and brown sugar and sesame seeds to the egg. Beat well. Add unbleached flour and stir to form a paste.
2. Add the white dough into the paste and stir to form a very sticky paste-like dough. Add extra whole wheat flour until the dough becomes strong enough to handle with hands.
3. Partition dough into small pieces and place each piece into a greased mold about 2.5" diameter. If the consistency of the dough is right, then it will stand well in the mold without spreading.
4. Allow the dough to proof in a warm place until the dough has risen by 1.5 times its original volume.
5. Bake at 400F for 5-10 minutes.

Results:


White dough
White dough prepared:

White dough rested 40 minutes:

White dough punched down:

White dough partitioned:

Red bean roll
Red bean almond filling prepared:

Red bean dough sheet:

Red bean dough with filling:

Red bean dough rolled up:

Red bean dough prepared to rest in greased mini-pan:

Red bean dough risen dramatically on warm stove top:

Red bean roll baked 15 minutes at 400F:

Red bean roll bottom:

Red bean roll top:

Pesto roll
Pesto dough sheet:

Pesto dough filling:

Pesto dough to proof:

Pesto dough baked bottom:

Sesame buns
Sesame bun initial dough mix:

Sesame bun dough ready:

Sesame buns in mold:

Sesame buns proofed on warm stove top:

Sesame buns baked:

Observations:
1. This white dough has a powerful oven spring. I think it's because of the extra 1 tp of yeast added to the final dough.
2. The thin fillings give a spiral interior to each of the mini-loaves. This time, the amount of red bean paste is just right. The loaf is not heavy. This helps it to rise very nicely.
3. Since the sesame buns have a higher percentage of fat and sugar than the lean loaves, I make the white dough first and make sure that gluten has developed before adding in the sugar, egg and butter. This might have explained for the huge oven spring of the buns in this baking.
4. A black baking pan absorbs more heat than a silver colored one. So the sesame buns are browned more in the bottom.