Buttermilk White Bread and Salsa Quitza with Lora Brody

Boom!

Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have

baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads

right here in my own kitchen.

How does bread from a bread machine

stack up against a handmade loaf?

Lora Brody, our bread machine wizard

teaches us how to use this popular appliance

to make everything from breadsticks to quitza.

Join us on...

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A house is not a home

without a bread machine nowadays.

And I have with me Lora Brody

who is the queen of the machine

and she has not only one

but two machines.

Let's start in.

To show the versatility of the bread machine, Julia

I'm going to make a loaf

of white buttermilk bread.

And it's important to measure the ingredients

into the bread pan when it's out of the machine.

You don't want to be spilling stuff on the coil.

So I'm going to put in the dry ingredients first

starting with the yeast.

And this recipe calls for 2½½ teaspoons of yeast

and I use the instant yeast.

That is not the same as rapid-rise.

Instant means that it dissolves instantly in the bread mix.

I see.

That you need very much in the machine.

Exactly.

And this is powdered buttermilk--

which is available in the health food store--

and we're going to use three... tablespoons.

Mm-hmm.

And salt... We need a teaspoon of salt.

You know, when you...

Back to the yeast for a second.

When you measure yeast

it's essential to use a clean, dry teaspoon.

And, you know, a lot of men use bread machines

and they think a teaspoon is something...

They also think they invented baking, right?

Teaspoon is something you stir your coffee with.

This is a teaspoon.

Okay, we got the salt.

The next ingredient is the flour

which are three cups

and I am of the scoop- and-level method.

Good.

I think that's the most accurate.

Yes, and I am using regular flour

unbleached and unbromated.

If you want to use bread machine flour

or better-for-bread flour

that's fine-- whatever works.

But you're just using plain all-purpose.

Plain all-purpose.

And we're going to use a table...

For the fat element

we're going to use a tablespoon of very soft butter.

You can use salt or sweet, as you wish.

And three tablespoons of maple syrup.

Now, if you don't like sweet bread

can you omit the sugar?

Absolutely, you can omit the sugar.

However, you need the salt.

Salt acts as a yeast retardant

so the bread doesn't blow up out of the machine.

If you wanted, you could use honey

rather than maple syrup.

Honey, brown sugar, molasses.

I'm going to add a cup of water.

Is that cold water?

It's room temperature.

Room-temperature water.

And I'm going to put the pan into the machine.

And that's all there is?

That's pretty much all there is.

Now I'm going to close the door

and in about five minutes, I'm going to check it

just to make sure I don't have to add liquid or flour.

You know, many manufacturers say, "Do not open the lid."

Well, you have to open the lid.

The machine only has a computer;

it does not have a brain.

( chuckles )

Brody: Great secret for success

working with the bread machine is

after about five minutes of kneading

O

O gh

to see if you need additional flour or water.

And I can see that this dough is a little sticky.

However, look how beautifully the gluten has developed.

Gluten is the protein in bread.

Look at that stretching.

We've got a wonderful, wonderful dough.

So I'm going to close the lid and let it bake bread.

So, in this bread machine, we've made... Oh, my gosh

w

look at this wonderful dough!

Isn't that terrific?

You know, the machine just works the gluten

and makes it rise.

Now we've got this great dough.

That looks lovely, I must say.

Thank you.

One of the things people say to me

about the bread machine is

"Well, I like to handle the dough."

I like to handle the dough, too

so we could make a loaf of bread very easily out of the machine.

So if you could give me a loaf pan

I'm going to use this dough.

In my experience with the bread machine

I like it...

I think the bread is much better

if you take it out after...

I'd leave it a second rise in there

and take it out

and then I think the texture's better.

How about if we do a John Henry?

We'll do the machine versus handmade.

Fine, good.

I'll make a loaf in the machine

and then we'll do a blind tasting.

I'm going to butter the bread pan

with a generous amount of butter.

If you wish, you can use vegetable spray

but I prefer butter.

This is not about being a bakery

so this is probably not a perfect bakery loaf.

Well, do you have to firm it?

You don't firm it, you just dump it in?

I just dump it in.

I sort of made it loaf-shaped, as it were.

But you could firm it if you wanted to.

Yes-- I like actually taking advantage

of what's left of the rise here.

And you can now let this rise

at room temperature--

I'm going to cover it with a cloth---

or you can let it rise overnight

in the refrigerator.

I'm going to set this aside.

And I've got some other dough here.

Does this have to double in volume?

Double in bulk, exactly.

Depending on the temperature in the kitchen

it could take 20 minutes, it could take an hour.

Now, this dough can also be made

into dinner rolls and all kinds of things.

How about if we make some cloverleaf rolls

and some little twisty rolls?

And these cloverleaf rolls are very, very simple to make.

I'm using this bench scraper, one of my favorite tools.

And, again, you can use nonstick vegetable spray

but we're going to use butter.

So perhaps you could anoint the cups.

I'll do that while you form the rolls.

That would be wonderful.

And the cloverleaf is formed

by cutting three little balls.

You know, children love to do this.

I just stick my finger up through there

and form the ball.

It doesn't have to be a perfect ball.

What are you doing, sort of pulling it around?

Pulling it around my finger, forming the ball.

Mm-hmm.

And that's... that's it.

And then putting it in closely.

One, two, three.

And that's all you do.

That's it.

And, again, this is not

about making it look perfect or all the same or...

You know, they should be

pretty much ballpark the same.

But you can do it as well as you can.

Exactly.

As they rise, they'll grow together

and become really pretty little dinner rolls.

You can form these, and at that point

freeze them right in the pan.

Oh, now, that's a good idea.

Pull them out just before you're ready to bake them

and you can bake them frozen.

You put the dough right in the oven.

Take the dough out of the freezer

put it into a cold oven, turn the oven on

and as the oven preheats, your dough will defrost.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Now, those don't look very neat.

But then you said that the yeast is forgiving

and they'll look better.

Yes, as they rise, you'll be amazed at what happens.

Things sort of come together.

I'm going to use this egg glaze

as a finishing touch.

What is that?

It's got one egg mixed

with about a half a cup of heavy cream.

Oh, that's interesting.

And it makes a beautiful shiny... almost like mahogany.

I've never seen that kind of a glaze before.

My mother used to...

When she made challah

she would always use an egg glaze.

And we'll sprinkle it with some herbes de Provence.

Mm-hmm.

And because I've glazed these

I won't have to cover them.

They will rise without developing a crust.

That's nice.

I'm going to let them raise about 20 minutes

in a nice warm place.

Now, do they have to double?

Well, about double in bulk.

So we can just let these rise right there.

And now I've got some extra dough

and I'll show you how to make

these terrific little twisty knots.

They're going to bake

on a baking sheet, so...

I have one over here.

All right.

And I'll take this dough out.

Thank you.

Since I have butter at hand, I'm going to quickly...

I love that sign

that used to be on buses in Paris saying

"La cuisine au beurre est toujours meilleur"

or "Cooking with butter is always better."

And I couldn't agree more.

What's this going to be?

This is just a strip

and I'm going to tie it into a simple knot

and make some dinner rolls.

And, again, you can form these

and have them in the freezer, unbaked

and whip them out into your oven.

Let me see if I can do that.

Would you like to do it?

I would.

And while you do this

I will attempt to make a breadstick.

You better watch me.

Now, what did you do?

Oh, this goes just like a regular knot.

Regular knot, mm-hmm.

That's it.

Try it a little tighter.

It can't stay in a knot.

You have to be assertive with the dough.

That's it.

It's a real knot.

And just put it down there.

Good.

And you want to leave enough room between them

because they're going to rise.

You don't want them rising into each other.

Let's make one more...

in case we have four for lunch.

Well, this is wonderful

that you can do this...

you can freeze it on the baking sheet.

On the baking sheet, absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

And one of the other options is to make a breadstick.

And the way to do that is

just take a long rope of dough, twist it out.

Would you like to make one?

I better try one, too.

Well, that's fun.

Pull it out there.

That's it.

And isn't... the dough is so flexible.

Isn't that nice?

Well, as you say, it's that gluten

that's making it hold.

And that's why you use a good-quality flour

made with hard wheat

and that will give you the lovely stretchability

and that's what makes the bread rise.

Now, do these get glazed?

These get glazed again.

How about if we glaze these

and we'll add some poppy seeds to the breadsticks?

We have some poppy seeds over there?

You can sprinkle.

And if you don't care for poppy seeds

you can leave them off.

If you want sesame seeds, you can use them instead.

Here are these...

Isn't this wonderful that all these right out...

just out of the same dough?

I think that's great.

It's a very, very nice, flexible dough.

Now, they just have to rise again.

They'll rise again

probably for 20 to 30 minutes--

again, until they're double in bulk.

Well, how's our bread doing?

Ooh!

Look at that!

I'd say that's double in bulk, wouldn't you?

Isn't that a lovely loaf of bread?

Now, there's a surefire way

to tell whether your bread has risen all the way

and that's by poking it gently.

And see how the poke mark comes right back?

Yes, it does.

So you don't want to do it too aggressively.

No.

That's splendid, isn't it?

So I'm going to bake it at 450 degrees--

my oven is preheated-- for about 15 minutes at 450.

Then I'll turn the oven down to 375 for another 30 minutes.

Until it's done.

Until it's done.

There we are.

There we go, right on the center rack.

Hey, what happened to your bread pan?

You may notice that it's missing.

During the last ten minutes of the baking time

I like to remove the bread to let it brown all around.

I'm going to show you a surefire way to tell.

No more of that thumping business, which confused me.

We're going to take the bread's internal temperature.

And... 200 degrees.

200 degrees.

Now, this is one way of doing it.

You can use an instant-read thermometer

if you wish.

And this is a good way.

You can certainly do it this way.

And there it is.

Yeah, it takes a little while to get up there.

There we are.

Excellent, it is done.

I'm going to remove it to a cooling rack.

Close the oven.

Thank you.

This is a beautiful loaf of bread.

And our bread-machine loaf is done as well.

I like to bypass that cooling cycle

because I find that it makes the bread soggy.

So as soon as the bread is baked

I like to remove it.

We're going to take out this kneading pin.

Can you see that?

Yeah, mm-hmm.

And you want to be careful not to drop it...

Ooh, careful, it's hot, hot.

Don't burn yourself.

You want to be careful

not to drop it in the dispose-all

or in the garbage.

I found out the hard way

how difficult it is to replace.

Look at it.

Marvelous loaf-- look at that.

Now, that's...

That's the mark from the kneading blade

that's in the back of the machine.

Yeah, well, it doesn't make a pretty loaf, does it?

I think it makes a pretty loaf.

There, look at that.

It's a different kind of loaf.

Yeah, it is.

Now, the smell is really intoxicating

and I think that the urge is

to eat it right away

but it's a really good idea

to let the bread cool off.

It's still baking internally

and if you take a knife and slice it, it gets sort of gummy.

Mm-hmm.

We've got the rolls

that we baked at 450 degrees

for about 12 to 15 minutes

until they're nice and brown.

Those we can eat right out of the oven.

Aren't they nice?

Should we open one up?

Sure.

This is still slightly warm.

Mmm.

That's nice.

Mmm, that's good.

Good?

So we'll have to let these wait...

Ten or 15 minutes.

Or even longer, or what?

I like warm bread.

All right, we'll wait 20 minutes.

All right, that's a good compromise.

There's a great debate

about these strange-shape loaves.

Do you cut them from the top?

Do you cut them from the side?

This is the way I like to cut them.

All right.

How about if we check the texture of this

against... this is the one that was baked in the machine.

Yeah.

And this is the one that was baked...

Kneaded in the machine and risen.

Well, what do you think?

Let's cut a little piece off and taste it.

All right, okay.

( chuckling ): It's a very thick piece.

It's a very thick piece.

One of the keys, actually, to cutting bread nicely

is to use a very sharp serrated knife

and this is one of my favorites.

So, what you're tasting

is the one that was baked in the oven

and here is the bread-machine.

It's got a lovely crumb.

Oh, that's pretty good.

It's so good, you don't even need butter, huh?

They taste much the same

but I've not had the same experience.

Well, you're just going to have to have me in your kitchen more.

I think maybe that's it.

Well, Lora, this is fascinating.

I think it's a wonderful machine.

I think you've got the right spirit--

you're the boss of the machine.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Julia.

This is a wonderful, gutsy, spicy bread

and it's made out of all kinds of things--

Lora's secret.

And you're going to tell us what's in it

and how you make it.

Secret no more.

What I did in this bread

is I combined legumes in the form of refried beans

and some really good whole-wheat flour--

creates a complete protein.

Well, let's make it.

All right.

We're going to start with yeast.

We're going to use a tablespoon of yeast.

And, again, it's that instant...

Instant?

dissolving yeast.

Yeah.

Yes.

And we have some cornmeal.

You can use yellow or white.

It's a half a cup.

It gives that wonderful crunchy and sweet texture to, um...

We've got three tablespoons of nonfat dry milk.

And I add this for two reasons:

one, to give a nice stretching ability to the bread

and for calcium boost as well.

And we're going to add some chili powder, two teaspoons.

Is it triple... triple strength?

I hope this is mild.

I really like to give my guests

not a tremendous surprise--

or my eaters, as it were.

Teaspoon and a half of salt.

Do you use any special salt, like kosher or...?

I don't use kosher salt or coarse salt

in the bread machine

because I'm afraid it might scratch the Teflon.

Aha, that's a good idea, yes.

Yeah, you know, if you scratch the Teflon

it makes it awfully difficult to get the bread out.

I'm going to use some white wheat flour in this recipe.

You can certainly use all white

or even all white wheat

but we're going to have a combination.

So it's one cup of the white wheat

or whole-wheat, if you wish...

Whole wheat is white... white...

Whole wheat is...

White wheat with...

( both chuckle )

White wheat is a lighter kind of whole-wheat flour.

Oh.

So it's two of white and one of white wheat.

So those are the dry ingredients.

Moving right along to the wet ingredients.

We've got these refried beans.

And they come in a can

and I like to use the vegetarian refried beans.

There are lots of different kinds on the market:

nonvegetarian, spicy, not spicy...

And I'm eyeballing about one cup.

This is a ten-ounce can.

Yeah.

But, you know, more or less is not...

I've never seen it come in paste like that.

That's interesting.

And it smells really, really good.

And we've got this...

I brought this back from Santa Fe.

This is Taos red-chili honey.

Red-chili honey?

Isn't that a beautiful color?

You can use any kind of honey you wish.

If you can't find red-chili honey

that's not a problem.

We have a quarter of a cup of oil.

And I've got this wonderful mild chili oil.

Gosh.

And we've got an egg.

One egg.

And a cup of water.

And what I'm going to do

is make this loaf of bread right in the bread machine.

I'm going to put the pan in there

and press Start.

And, again, after about a few minutes

I'm going to look in, see how things are going.

But, you know, the fact is

you don't have to make the loaf of bread.

You have some choices.

And if you use the machine just in the dough cycle

you can make something called "quitza."

And what's that?

It is a cross between pizza and quiche.

And here is the dough.

I'm going to make it in this springform pan

with slope sided... slope sides.

We're calling it a slope-sided springform pan.

But you could use...

That doesn't have to be this pan.

Oh, no, you can use a springform pan or...

It's just pretty.

You can also just make this into a flat pizza

and roll it out

and put it on a baking dish.

Now, I'm going to get my rolling pin here

and I'm going to roll this out.

You always use a marble pin.

Well, I like to do it because it's got heft.

Yeah.

And it really helps.

Mm-hmm.

And it's nice and cold.

The dough is a pretty color.

Isn't it a pretty color?

It's also, again...

Pinch a taste of it.

Now, at this point

I could also bake it on a pizza stone if I wished.

But now I'm going to line this pan with the dough...

But just tasting it, it doesn't have...

it isn't overly spicy.

No.

No.

No.

And, again, this is not about being...

having it perfect.

Nicey, nicey, no.

No, I don't...

I'm not good at that.

Rustic.

Rustic, indeed.

So there is my...

And I've got a little dough left over.

We can just patch it up there.

So, to finish this off

I've got some softened cream cheese here.

Oh, just plain old, usual cream cheese.

Cream cheese, yes.

Nice and soft so it's easily spreadable

I'm going to put this on the bottom.

And... this is some jarred salsa

and it's chunky salsa

and what I do is I put it into a sieve

and allow some of the liquid to drain out.

and that prevents...

This is just store-bought salsa.

It is.

And you could certainly make your own...

Mm-hmm.

if you have a favorite recipe.

I'm going to spread it out here.

and then I'm going to top the whole thing

with some grated cheddar cheese.

There's about a cup.

I can smell that salsa.

Isn't that nice?

Yes, very fresh, nice.

So we'll just let it rise until it's double in bulk

about 20 to 40 minutes

and then we're going to be baking it.

At 475 for 20 to 25 minutes.

So, we have achieved quitza.

It's beautiful, it's absolutely beautiful.

It's kind of like a deep-dish pizza...

Exactly.

with much more pizzazz.

That looks lovely.

You can have this hot out of the oven.

Mmm, yeah.

Look at that.

I love it when everything melts together.

Isn't that great?

Isn't that beautiful?

Wow!

Wowdy-dowdy.

All right, here's a piece for you.

and... and I'll cut a piece.

Mmm.

Let me know what you think.

Oh, boy.

Mmm, that's wonderful.

It's not too spicy

but you've got all the taste of things in it.

Exactly.

Delicious.

If you want to make it spicy

you can just put some hot sauce on top.

Mm-hmm.

So...

I think the combination of cheeses is so good.

Isn't that good?

That's not shabby.

I'm always amazed, you know.

It's just great.

Think of all that we've done.

I think it's very exciting

for the home cook, the home baker

to know that this can be done quite easily.

And all thanks to you, Lora.

Thank you so much for coming, dear.

It was my great pleasure.

Because I've always wanted to know

what you could do with this machine

and I'm very grateful to you.

Now, are you going to keep your machine on your counter now?

Yes, I certainly am.

( laughing ): Good.

Julia's got the tastiest site on

YñYy

Julia Child: Bon appétit!