Bread baking pans

Here is my small collection of bread baking pans. I bake all my breads in these pans, unless I'm baking a free-form loaf on a cookie sheet. The stainless-steel pans are from an antique shop, owned by the former milk man, who used to bring milk to my parents every day on his rounds. I bought a beautiful, antique kerosene lamp from him. When I saw these stainless-steel pans, I said I wanted them, too. He said, "Those come with the lamp!" Since then, I have made many loaves of bread in these trusty pans. The little can is just an emptied and washed fruit or vegetable tin that I use mainly for quick breads, but it also comes in handy for that odd bit of extra dough. The fluted pan is for rich brioche. It makes a decorous loaf of bread. The piece of green pottery is made by a couple in Albert Lea, Minnesota. They fire these bread-baking bowls at a really high temperature, so that they'll be safe for bread baking. It makes a lovely, crusty loaf of bread. The enameled pan in front is the pan my mother used to keep on the counter full of coupons and recipe clippings. This pan, too, makes a nice, crusty loaf.

Split-Top Cracked Wheat Bread

I had some whole wheat kernels to use up when I started this batch, so I put them in my spice grinder, and whirled away. The recipe calls for 31/2 cups water, 2 tsp. yeast,1/2 cup cracked wheat, 1/2 cup raw oatmeal, 1/2 cup wheat germ, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 Tbsp. oil, 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, and 2 tsp yeast. I threw in 1 cup unbleached white flour just to help it rise, since it has a lot of grains in it. The rest is whole wheat flour. After making the sponge, and letting it rest, I kept kneading it, and adding whole wheat, until I had a soft, still-sticky dough. Then, I oiled my big bread bowl, and placed the dough in it to rise, flipping it once to oil the whole surface of the dough. I covered it with a plate, and let it rise for two hours. Then, I shaped it into three shapes, as you see from the photo, let it rise again, and let it bake for 45 minutes. The small one took less time.
I enjoy my set of bread baking pans. The large round loaf is made with a pottery bowl that was made just for bread. It makes a beautiful loaf with a nice crust all over. The oblong loaf is made with an antique, enameled pan that my mother had sitting on the counter for years with recipes and coupons in it. It used to have a wooden serving tray with it, but that disappeared several years back. This pan, too, makes a nice crust. The small, round loaf is made using an empty tin of some long-forgotten vegetable of fruit. I keep the largish tin around for leftover pieces of dough, or to make quick breads for gifts.

Spelt Bread

This is actually the second batch of bread I baked this week. It was that kind of a week. I've been buying store bread (It's been that kind of a semester.), and on Wednesday, I was so tired of stale-tasting bread that I started a sponge for Herb Bread before school, and then took it out of the fridge to knead, rise, and bake it after I arrived back home in the evening. Never mind that I was invited out to the visiting professor's farewell dinner in the evening. I told them I was going to be elbow-deep in dough, and, was delighted to have unwittingly created an excuse to stay home from an unexpected event, and relax after an exhausting day. The Herb Bread turned out sublime, so I froze one loaf for finals-week emergencies, and started another batch of bread on Friday - this time Spelt Bread, since Mom gave me an ice-cream bucket full of spelt flour at the end of Christmas vacation.
This bread has two teaspoons of yeast, two tablespoons of honey, and 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal flakes. There's no wheat flour in this bread, and although I've read that spelt does not have as much gluten as wheat flour, I've never had any trouble with it rising. It rises like a dream, and, although it has just a little more crumbly texture than my whole-wheat bread, it is quite tasty.

Sesame Bran Bread

Here is the result of the sponge from the last post. This is a really nummy loaf of bread! After I added the rest of the ingredients, I let the dough rise for two hours at room temperature, and then punched it down. I then shaped it into loaves, and placed the loaves in a slightly warm oven to rise. I baked the loaves at 375 for 45 minutes. Mmmm! Steaming, fresh-from-the-oven bread!

Sesame Bran Bread

.
Here's one of my favorite bread recipes from Mel London's Bread Winners (1979). If you ever happen to find this cookbook, I highly recommend having your own copy. I have had endless fun experimenting with the recipes of London's Bread Winners. This one was submitted by a ballerina by the name of Noelle, but, of course, I made my changes to it.
This is a picture of the sponge I made after I took it out of the refrigerator. It has 1 cup water, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and enough whole wheat flour to make a thick pea-soup-consistency.
I then added another 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast, two eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup bran, about 1/2 cup sesame seeds, and enough whole wheat flour to make a very sticky dough. Then, I turned it out on the floured counter top, and poured on about another 3/4 cup of sesame seeds, and more flour, which I kneaded into the dough. I kneaded the dough until it was a heavy dough, but still quite sticky. Now, it's rising in the oven. I can hardly wait to have hot bread for supper!

Cinnamon Rolls and Egg Bread

Wow! These cinnamon rolls and egg bread were three days in the making. I started the sponge on Friday evening: 1 cup water, 1 cup heated milk, 1 teaspoon of yeast, and enough flour to make a very thick soup. I stirred it all together, and put it in the fridge to make the next day, but never got to it. I pulled it out this morning, added another 1/2 cup of flour, just to make extra, a 1/4 cup of melted butter, two teaspoons of yeast, three eggs, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, more flour... I put it in the oven to rise, and took a nap. When I got up, it had risen all over the oven! That was all right; I took it out, and scrubbed the oven cleaner than it was before. :-D I rolled out part of the dough, brushed melted butter all over it., and then sprinkled it very generously with cinnamon sugar. Then I rolled it up, and sliced it, placing the slices face up in a buttered casserole dish. The other part of the dough, I shaped into a loaf. I placed them both in the warm oven again, and waited about an hour, by which time they had risen like a dream! I left them in the oven, and just turned the oven on. The rolls baked for 30 minutes, and the bread for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Egg Bread

What a great way to warm up on a chilly day - make a batch of homemade bread! I started out just throwing ingredients together yesterday: 2 1/2 cups of water, a teaspoon of yeast, and enough flour to make a very thick soup. I stirred this until it was very thoroughly mixed, and then stirred it a good deal more to get the gluten working. After letting it sit on the counter for an hour or so, I set it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, I added 3 eggs, 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast, a teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup melted butter, and enough flour to make a soft dough, which I then kneaded for several minutes. I placed in a well-oiled bowl, and covered it, and then let it rise in the oven for two hours. It rose like a dream! It had risen all the way up to the plate covering when I took it out of the oven, and greased the pans. Just for fun, I made one of them a cinnamon swirl loaf. Can you guess which one it is? ;-)