Deeply complex flavor from minimum ingredients is one way to describe Japanese cooking, and these cookies fit that bill. They're very tender and moderately sweet with a tiny touch of mushroom and a parade of indescribable but excellent tastes. You'll be amazed by how easy, and how rewarding, they are.
These soft, delicious, savory-and-sweet dinner rolls are a perfect accompaniment to any meal. Rich with butter, buttermilk and egg, and stuffed with sweet-tart dried fruit, they take shape over two or more days in paced but easy steps. The recipe size is based on the appetites of two adults but can be doubled or quadrupled for larger gatherings.
Yield: Six, 3-ounce dinner rolls - suitable for 2 adults.
Fresh-ground rice flour and a nice blast of five-star anise make a genuine treat in these buttery, colorful cookies. A hand or motor driven burr grinder, set to its finest number, turns black Thai sticky rice into an aromatic, fluffy, lavender-colored powder. The rest is quick and easy, and thoroughly traditional.
Yield: About a dozen, quarter-ounce cookies
Time to make: 40 minutes active, 15 minutes oven dwell.
Sweet-sour, moist and dense, and packed with fruit and pecans, this naturally-fermented sandwich loaf is a treat. Enjoy it unadorned, toasted and smeared with sweet creamery butter, or with PB&J - it's always a winner.
Yield: One, 20-ounce sandwich loaf
Time to make: 45 minutes prep time. 5 - 8 hours proof time. 1 1/2 hour bake time.
Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
Delicious alone, outstanding when smeared with butter, and a genuine treat for sandwiches, this basic sourdough loaf uses a neutral-tasting brown rice starter and a flavor-balanced blend of grains and starches.
Yield: 1, 22-ounce sourdough sandwich loaf.
Time to make: An hour of active time, spread over three days. Dough rest, refrigeration, and/or oven dwell times total 3 days.
This is truly the easiest treat you can bake. The emphasis is on fruit flavor, so the dough must assume a subordinate role. Hence, it's made with brown rice flour, enriched with ground pecans and made slightly chewier with tapioca starch.
This recipe was revised 1/20/22
True love in the form of soft crumb and tender crust, this bread is a gluten-free treasure. The secret is an ingredient called tangzhong, which roughly translated is "water roux". This is a small amount of flour that's gelatinized by cooking in a mix of water and milk. Added to bread dough it dramatically tenderizes, softens and moistens the finished loaf. As is the case with many 9 grains inventions, a great variety of flavors can be obtained by choice of flour for the tangzhong.
An enriched, fruit-stuffed bread that in many homes is the quintessence of a Christmas treat, panettone is deeply flavorful. This recipe is not difficult but patience is required. The dough is leavened with a blend of natural sourdough and commercial yeast, requiring a long slow rise. The payoff is deep flavor in a moist, dense, slow-staling bread. Substitution options abound and are noted.
Yield: one 6-inch diameter, 20 ounce round, enriched bread. Serves 4 - 6.
Great taste, superior performance and affordable ingredients make White Lighting Blend a go-to for a wide range of savory baked goods. Excellent for pan bread, baguettes and boules, it's readily adaptable for use in enriched loaves and buns, pizza, and other flatbreads.
Equipment needed: Measuring cups and spoons or kitchen scale. Large zip-lock bag or stand mixer with paddle attachment.
Snacking cakes are two-bowl wonders - moist, tender, flavorful cakes that skip complicated and time-consuming preparation. This one takes the wonder one step further, by using baking soda to neutralize tartness in a sourdough starter. The tactic creates an instant rise while retaining all the depth and nuance of sourdough - without the sour. Its flour bouquet complements minimal but assertive spices and the sourdough process guarantees very slow staling. Make and enjoy!
Yield: 2 mini-loaves (2 3/4 " wide X 2 1/4" deep X 5 3/4" long).