Lime-rose bread

and Lemon-garlic bread too

I was organizing my spices, wanted to make bread and a cream cheese spread for the Saturday Supper, and came up with a perceptually sweet, and perceptually savory version to pair.

foreground: Lime-rose bread with a honey-ginger schmear, and behind it a lemon-garlic bread with a basil-verbena schmear.

Both breads have the same basic dough, which I start by adding the warm water, sugar, and yeast into the bowl, and allowing to stand for a few moments to bloom the yeast. If you are using quick yeast you can omit the bloom time.

Slowly add in the flour, a cupful at a time, before finishing with the oil and the salt. In my stand mixer, I add the spices at this stage and allow it to knead for about ten minutes, which yields a soft but cohesive dough that forms into a ball easily.

Base Dough

• 1 1/2 c warm water

• 3 tsp sugar

• 2 1/4 tsp yeast

• 3 1/2 c flour

• 1/4 c oil (olive is nice)

• 1/2 tsp salt

for the Lime-rose add:

• 1 1/2 tsp dried lime powder (light)

• 1/2 c whole dry rose petals

Or, for the Lemon-garlic, add:

• 1/2 tbsp granulated garlic

• 1 tbsp dried basil (or fresh, I happened to have just dried excess from the garden)

• 1 tsp dried finely chopped lemon zest

• 1/2 c grated parmesan

Once the dough and spices have come together and been kneaded until elastic and springy to the touch, turn into a lightly-oiled bowl, cover with a cloth, and allow to rise in a warm place. I’m currently using my utility room, which runs about 85F, and the dough doubled in roughly a half-hour. I’m usually doing other things while this happens, so it is more about looking to see if the size has increased than looking at the time - in a cooler kitchen it will take longer, although you can use a warm (not actively heating) oven if you like.

Gently punch the dough down, and allow to rest about ten more minutes. Then form into desired shape. I wanted baguettes as this was to be an appetizer, so small, thin slices would be the order of the day. Put loaves on your pan, and allow to rise for the final time, until roughly doubled again.

Just before slashing and putting in the oven.

Preheat oven. I set this to 350F as my husband requested a softer crust. You will get a nice crust and better spring if you bake at 400F for about 15 minutes, though. Just before you put the pan in, slash the tops of the loaves to allow for expansion. At the lower temp, I baked my loaves for about 25 minutes, until golden-brown at the edges and hollow-sounding when thumped.

In aid of the softer crust, I buttered the loaves when I took them out, using a pastry brush to get a nice even coat. Omit this step if you like a nice crunchy crust.

Cream cheese spread

• 8 oz room-temperature cream cheese

Put this into a food processor with blade attachment, then add:

• 1 tbsp honey

• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger (chopped crystalized ginger would be even better if you have it)

Or

finely julienne a handful of fresh herbs. I had in the garden

• Basil

• Lemon Verbena

• 1 tsp salt

Run the food processor with pulses until evenly incorporated, then continuously for a moment or two until the cream cheese has some air beaten into it and is smooth and creamy and spreadable.

Serve with the breads - sweet and savory paired!

Lime-Rose bread when freshly sliced.

I wasn’t sure how well the Lime-rose bread would work at all. I’d picked up the ground dried lime at a Middle Eastern market on a whim (there is also a dark version, which I am told has a subtly different flavor, but I have the light). The rose petals… well. I wanted some to play with and the only size package will have me trying all manner of ways to use them up before they lose their fragrance. In the bread, neither is a strong flavor, but both are present, and the lime added a darkness to the dough that had people asking if it were whole-wheat, which it was not. This, with the honey-ginger spread, was very nice indeed.

Initially I was just going to make this garlic and parmesan, a classic flavor combo and one I do routinely. However, as I was also working on getting all of my spices in order - a daunting task that took me most of the day! - I opted to add in the lemon zest which was the last I’d saved in a bottle from another recipe, and then the basil I’d dried out the week before as it all went in nicely. Two less bottles, whee. For flavor, it was lovely, garlicky and savory with the cheese being present. I think the basil got lost with the fresh basil in the spread being predominant. The lemon verbena was also the strongest lemon note - and it’s not a tart lemon, it’s the floral lemon of a lemon peel in the herb.

The spices… and what’s in the picture isn’t all of them. I kept finding random bottles or bags I’d tucked away. I wound up with most of the alphabet in spices when I finally got them all laid out in order to see where I had duplicated them. I was missing q, w, x and y - although it’s since been pointed out that white pepper will fill in my w nicely. Not sure on the others!

As for organizing them, I devoted a part of a cabinet to bulk storage (the white boxes you see on the back counter aided in keeping that tidy). I put the most commonly used in cooking within arms-reach of the range using a metal wall-mounted strip and magnetic containers. My kitchen island has deep shelves in the doors that hold larger containers nicely, so those all went there. I put the ‘baking’ spices in my Hoosier cabinet, and finally put all of the small containers in more-or-less alphabetical* order on the three wall-mounted racks where they fit. I was able to toss the oldest stuff, consolidated where I had more than one container, and inflic…er, give a friend some of the excess Italian seasoning (don’t buy a pound of dried herbs. Just… don’t). I’m very happy with how it came together and look forward to cooking with spices I can actually find!

This is a lot of rose petals. So many. I’ll have to get creative!

*not alphabetical because my small containers are not uniform and some won’t fit on the middle shelves. I can’t be bothered to order all the same size and shape containers, though. I mean… I could? But I’m on to a different project, having resolved this pain point in the kitchen. Time to tackle the utlity room, which is cooler as the weather outside isn’t over 100F daily. Then, at long last, my art room will get my attention next weekend. Yay!