and fifteen-bean soup—perfect for dipping!
© 2011 by KV5R — Rev. Feb. 2, 2011.
It was February 1, 2011—the first day of the Big Freeze. Sunday it was 77, now it’s 18. Seems like a good time to make fifteen-bean soup
Okay—so these aren’t really bread sticks—more like baguettes or batons. I just made’em this shape for dipping into my soup. I started with the dough logs laid out on a baking sheet, then I figured they’d run together so I separated then by folding a piece of parchment into a couche, and that worked quite well.
Warning: this article may cause hunger.
Procedure
- Start a bag of Hurst’s HamBeens®
- Make a 3-cup batch of dough (1/3rd WW) and rise it some.
- Shape the dough with a rolling pin
into a rectangle, about 9 by 13.
- Cut it into 6 strips.
- Form a 6-slot bread couche
(or make one with with parchment) and lay it and dough sticks in a 9 by 13 cookie sheet.
- Rise 2 hours, or ’til it looks about right.
- Put a cake pan with 3 cups of water in the bottom of the oven and preheat to 375.
- Bake 40 minutes at 375. Turn them over and bake another 10 minutes. We want the crust very firm but not cracklin-crisp.
- Remove and cool.
- Start beans cooking; cook 3 hours, then add 1 diced potato, 2 diced tomatoes, garlic, and several diced jalapenos and cook 1 more hour.
- Serve in a big bowl with a broken bread stick. Yum!
The consistency of the crust is important. The breads should be breakable, but the crust should not shatter. Crusts that are shatter-hard tend to make a mess and cut the the palate. I was trying for a very firm crust, but not a very crispy one, so I overcooked the breads but steamed them throughout cooking. It worked! Perfectly!
Photos
Start them thare beans a-soakin’.
Cut the dough into 6 strips. Press straight down on the knife; don’t use a dragging cut.
Roll them just enough to take the corners off.
I put the strips on a cookie sheet to rise…
…then decided I’d better make a couch. I put marks on the parchment every 4 inches,
folded and creased it, then just stacked the dough strips onto it in the cookie sheet.
Let it rise in a slightly warm oven.
Baked 40 minutes, then turned them over and baked 10 minutes more.
Steamed crust is very firm but not too crispy; crumb is coarse and soft. Perfect for dipping!
The soup took about another three hours after the bread was done.
Ready to eat! That’s a high-energy, high-fiber, no fat, no cholesterol, delicious
vegetarian meal, with no animal products. Both tasty and healthy!
Notes
So there it is! My first homemade bread sticks. What did I learn?
- Steam-cooking bread is a good way to get a firm crust without it getting too crispy.
- You don’t need fancy-schmancy expensive baguette molds or a French flaxen canvas baker’s couch to make homemade baguettes or bread sticks. Just fold up some parchment and let’er rip.
- Once you understand how bread mixing, fermenting, and baking works, it’s easy to try anything you like!
Lookie what I found out in my old shed! I had forgotten that I inherited that years ago. That’s a vintage ARC France 1.5L.
Guess what I’m gonna use that old beauty for?!