Recipe: Eggplant cheese bread (1 medium/large loaf)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tp baking powder
- 1 tp salt
- 1/2 tp garlic powder
- 2 tp crushed oregano
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 small eggplant shredded finely
- 2-3 TB tomato paste
- 1/4 cup + 2 TB water
- 2 eggs
- 3 TB coffee cream
- 1 TB honey
- 1 tp vegetable oil for greasing pan
Procedure:
1. Sieve flour, baking powder, salt, garlic powder and herbs into a large bowl.
2. Mix eggs, cream, honey, tomato paste, milk (or water) in another bowl. Beat to foaming.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Mix to form a batter. Add in the mozzarella and shredded eggplant. Mix thoroughly. Then pour into a 5"x9" pan. Top with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes. If the top of the bread has browned before the bread is done, cover top with foil.
5. Allow loaf to cool for 5 minutes in pan. Then turn it out and let cool on a rack.
Results:
2:30pm, most ingredients (except cream):
2:33pm, sieving flour, baking powder, salt, garlic powder and herbs:
2:42pm, 3 TB of coffee cream:
3:06pm, wet ingredients and dry ingredients have been prepared separately:
3:08pm, adding wet ingredients to dry ones:
3:10pm, initial hydration of the batter after adding water:
3:10pm, mozzarella added (note that this cheese adds moisture):
3:13pm, final batter after adding eggplant (note that eggplant adds moisture to the batter, so do not add all the water until the vegetable is thoroughly blended in):
3:19pm, batter poured into greased pan and flattened:
3:19pm, batter's height in pan:
3:19pm, batter's top:
3:21pm, Parmesan cheese added:
3:21pm, baking started:
3:39pm, loaf baked 18 minutes:
3:40pm, loaf's height after baking 18 minutes:
3:41pm, baking resumed with loaf covered:
4:22pm, loaf baked 1 hour, internal temperature exceeding 190F:
4:23pm, thermometer coming out still with a little stickiness:
4:23pm, loaf's edge in pan:
4:23pm, loaf's top in pan:
4:23pm, loaf's height in pan:
4:29pm, loaf's bottom after cooling 5 minutes and turning out:
4:29pm, loaf's top:
4:29pm, loaf's side:
4:29pm, loaf's corner:
4:30pm, loaf's contrast between top and side:
4:33pm, pan after detaching loaf:
6:09pm, loaf cooled 1+1/2 hours:
6:09pm, loaf's another view after cooling:
6:11pm, loaf very dense and heavy, but easily and cleanly sliced:
6:12pm, crumb and crust of loaf:
6:13pm, a center-of-loaf slice:
9:22pm, a near-heel-of-loaf slice:
Observations:
1. In this experiment, I want to find out whether sieving would help the bread to rise more uniformly.
2. The batter tastes sweet, probably because of the tomato paste.
3. This loaf is so dense and heavy! It can barely be called bread. Though there is an eggplant in it, the flavor of the bread is much more like a tomato bread with cheese. Eggplant is hardly noticeably apart from its contribution to the texture. The whole wheat flavor is distinctively noticeable at the background.
4. While the heel of the loaf is rather tough and dry, the center part of the crumb is pleasantly soft and tender when eaten fresh.
I compare this eggplant bread with my zucchini bread in my 56th experiment. Here are the differences and similarities:
Flour composition:
- zucchini bread uses 1 cup of bread flour and 1+1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- eggplant bread uses 2 cups whole wheat flour
Baking powder:
- zucchini bread uses 3 tp (1/2 tp more than the standard use of 1 tp per cup of flour)
- eggplant bread uses: 2 tp (following standard use of 1 tp per cup of flour)
Salt:
- zucchini bread uses 1+1/2 tp
- eggplant bread uses 1 tp (additional saltiness may come from tomato paste)
Cheeses:
- zucchini bread uses 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese for topping only
- eggplant bread uses 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese for batter and 1/2 cup Parmesan for topping
Fats other than cheeses:
- zucchini bread uses 3 TB olive oil in batter
- eggplant bread uses 3 TB coffee cream (light cream) in batter
Sugar:
- zucchini bread uses 3 TB sugar
- eggplant bread uses 1 TB honey (additional sweetness comes from tomato paste)
Egg:
- both use 2
Vegetables:
- zucchini bread uses 2 packed cup of shredded zucchini (2 whole small zucchini)
- eggplant bread uses about 1.5 cup of shredded eggplant (1 whole small eggplant)
Additional fluid:
- zucchini bread uses 3/4 cup milk
- eggplant bread uses 1/4cup+2TB water
Flavors:
- zucchini bread uses 1/4 tp ground nutmeg
- eggplant bread uses 1/2 tp garlic powder, 2 tp crushed oregano, and 2-3 TB tomato paste
This eggplant bread is undeniably much denser than the zucchini bread. While the zucchini bread has a slight sweetness, tomato paste dominates the flavor of the eggplant bread. Based on the crumbs of the two loaves, it does NOT seem like sieve the dry ingredients help to distribute the holes more evenly.
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