An ode to bread
Bagels, muffins, toast, sandwiches, croissants, pitas, pizza, rolls, baguettes, biscuits—the list goes on! There are so many types of breads and bread-adjacent delicacies, and we love them all.
With our new collection of table linens now available at the Penland Gallery just in time for feast season, we though we’d share a few favorite recipes. Below are two breads we make on repeat this time of year. Best served with loved ones and a naturally-dyed textile or two :)
Focaccia for Olive Oil Lovers
A year or so ago, after a long hiatus from yeasted bread baking, I decided to get back into it. I started with focaccia because it seemed more attainable than plump sourdough boules from carefully tended starters or fancifully braided and shaped loaves. And somehow, that’s where I finished, too. Honestly, I can’t quite find a reason to try anything else when this recipe is so easy and so good.
My focaccia is adapted from this no-knead recipe, but with a few tweaks to make it even easier and more delicious.
Make sure to eat at least half your bread in just-one-more-slice increments while it’s still steaming from the oven. Enjoy the rest with figs and goat cheese, or tomatoes and mozzarella and herbs, or slices of roasted squash with ricotta and pepitas, or just a big ol’ pot of beans. Really, you can’t go wrong here.
—Sarah
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup or sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 packet)
625 grams all purpose flour (5 cups)
1 ample tablespoon kosher salt
about 1/2 cup olive oil
2–3 generous cloves of garlic
2–3 sprigs of rosemary
flaky salt (we like Maldon!)
Directions
Start in the evening, when you finish up work or as you’re winding down for bed. The key to this recipe is time.
In a large lidded container (about 1 gallon capacity), add your water and honey, then sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for about 5 minutes as it starts to get foamy.
Meanwhile, measure out 625 grams of flour (a kitchen scale is your bff here!). Mix in the salt, then use a big spoon or spatula to fold the flour mixture into the yeasted water. Stir to combine—the dough will be sticky and wet, and that’s okay!
Tilt the bowl, scrape the dough from the raised side, and pour a good glug of olive oil into the exposed area of the bowl. Let the dough back down and repeat 1–2 more times on other sides of the bowl. I probably use about 1/4 cup of olive oil total, but I honestly never measure. The goal is to get a good coating of olive oil all around the dough.
Now close the lid, put it to bed in the fridge, and don’t think about it again until you wake up!
In the morning (or even when you get home from work!), remove the dough from the fridge. It should be bubbly and easily doubled in size.
Generously butter a 9 x 13” glass pan, add another couple glugs of olive oil to it, and plop the dough out into the center. Use your fingers to encourage the dough to the corners.
While the dough is warming up and rising further, smash your garlic cloves and mince them finely with the rosemary. Add another big glug of olive oil to a small bowl and mix in the garlic/rosemary mince. You want a thick, delicious, lively green slurry. Let it sit so the flavors can meld.
When the dough looks puffy and taller again (about an hour), preheat the oven to 450°. Pour your herby, garlicky oil evenly over the top of the dough, and then use all your fingers to poke lots of holes all over it. You want to create deep wells and crannies where the oil can pool. Now sprinkle a generous quantity of flaky salt over the top.
Once the oven has come to temp, bake your focaccia for 22–25 minutes. You want the top to be just on the brown side of golden, and the oil should be bubbling away happily along the sides.
Remove from the oven and let cool ever so slightly. But not too long—it never tastes better than when it’s still steaming and soft and crunchy all at once!
Josh’s Parsnip Loaf
This is one of our favorite recipes from one of our favorite cookbooks, Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. It’s earthy and complex, with a bit of chew and a bit of sweet and a definite unexpected edge. See if anyone can guess the mystery main ingredient!
The recipe is basically perfect as written, but we’ve made a few tweaks of our own over time: we go heavy on the Meyer lemons and the pepper, light on the sugar, and we swap out the chopped hazelnuts for hazelnut flour. Winter vegetable season never tasted so good!
Ingredients
Butter for the pan
1/2 pound parsnips (about 2)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup hazelnut flour
1/2 cup chopped dates
Freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1–2 Meyer lemons, juiced and zested
2/3 cup olive oil
1 cup powdered sugar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325° and butter an 8 x 5" loaf pan.
Grate the parsnips using a box grater or food processor. You want about 1 1/2 cups total.
Mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and hazelnut flour. Mix in the chopped dates so they're coated in flour and do not stick together.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and one teaspoon of lemon zest. Continue whisking while you slowly drizzle the olive oil into the egg mixture, as if you're making mayo. The oil should incorporate fully and the whole thing should look smooth and creamy.
Stir the parsnips into the flour, and then fold in the egg/oil mixture. Mix gently until no pockets of dry flour remain.
Pour the batter into your loaf pan and stick it in the oven to bake. Start checking the bread after about 35 minutes—you want a knife tip inserted into the center of the bread to come out clean. Depending on your pan and your oven, it can take up to an hour to bake fully.
Meanwhile, make the glaze. Stir together the lemon juice and powdered sugar. Add the remaining lemon zest (about another teaspoon) and a generous few twists of black pepper.
Remove the bread from the oven once it's fully baked. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a plate.
While the loaf is still slightly warm, drizzle the glaze over the top.
Serve for breakfast, snack, tea time, dessert, you name it!