Fantastic tomato bread
It occurs to me that I have yet to share much of my 2016 garden with you. If you follow @goodgriefcook on instagram then you have gotten some snippets. I love instagram. It is such a happy place with the best photography of people, places and food. Right now home-grown tomatoes are trending.
Back to my garden. It has been the most bountiful, yet. Each year seems to be better and better. It helps to rotate crops and purchase plants and seeds from reputable places. The last two years I have been a huge fan of the Burpee company because every single seed and plant purchased from them seem to flourish in my little plot of heaven. More good news is that I haven't needed to use any herbicides or pesticides on my plants. It seems hungry birds make a meal of most of the bugs. We encourage birds to hang around in our yard by providing suet in the winter and a few nesting boxes scattered around the garden area.
One thing I really do need to learn is how to properly plant a variety of plants and seeds that don't ripen all at once. Feast or famine? Right now we are feasting on tomatoes including two varieties (salsa and yellow pear) that self seeded from last year. I love those surprise plants and all the others that inspired today's recipes.
Toasted Fennel Tomato Jam is one of my all-time favorite recipes. I featured it around this time last year as inspired by my son's love for the caprese salad. If you really want to add some life to your favorite Italian mozzarella or burrata make the jam. Happily, I used up a 4 pound mix of tomatoes in this batch and it is as good as ever.
My latest original recipe is a Tomato Bread made with tomato juice and a mix of soy and bread flour. Back when I attended the National Festival of Breads I was gifted a bag of soy flour, so I thought I might give it a try. The bread makes a great sandwich with a mild tomato taste and slight sweetness from molasses.
Finally, and at at the suggestion of my daughter, together we whipped up this tomato pie recipe from Epicurious.com. We used gruyere cheese instead of cheddar and filled it with sweet heirloom cherry tomatoes and a smaller Brandywine variety. From the crisp buttery crust to the spicy cheese topping this tomato pie is a tasty one. It's perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Hope you enjoyed this glimpse of gardening from my neck of the woods. You say tomato and I say delicious especially if it is home-grown.
PrintFantastic Tomato Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
Description
Tomato juice, molasses and soy flour make this exceptional bread delicious
Ingredients
1 (¼ oz.) package Red Star Active Dry Yeast
1 ¾ cups tomato juice, warmed to about 115F.
1-tablespoon molasses
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried basil
1-tablespoon olive oil
1-cup Bob’s Red Mill soy flour
3 ½ to 4 cups King Arthur Flour bread flour
Instructions
- Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
- In large bowl of stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, sprinkle yeast over warm tomato juice; let stand 5 minutes.
- Stir in molasses, salt, basil, oil and soy flour. Slowly add bread flour until it comes together and pulls away from sides of the bowl.
- Switch to dough hook attachment. Knead dough on speed level 2 for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Shape the dough and place in prepared loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place, about 90 minutes, or until it rises ½-inch above the rim of the pan.
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Slash top of bread.
- Bake bread for 50 to 60 minutes or until instant read thermometer inserted in center registers 200-205F.
- Turn out on cooling rack and cool completely.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: soy flour, tomato juice, bread baking, yeast, gardening, tomatoes
By the way, I have not been compensated in any way by any of the companies that I have mentioned here. As always I am just sharing my favorite quality products with you. It's like a good neighbor who suggests her favorite restaurant or a tomato plant variety to try.
james matino
I regret not having a suitable spot to grow vegetables. A garden is so full of surprises. I think I may try to get a neighborhood/town/community plot not so far from me down the street and tend it with one of my neighbors. Your article has made me decide to go forward with it.
Lisa
The community garden shared with a neighbor is the perfect solution. Gardening is so scientific and therapeutic at the same time. A real creative challenge. You will reap many rewards not to mention all the fabulously fresh produce. Go for it.
Louis Matino (@LouMatino)
Great pics in this blog post. Nice contributions from Caitlin and the dog!
Lisa
Extra fun cooking with Caitlin and Levon. He loves being in the mix.
Nancy Bailey
Once again, another happy Sunday patio read. Thanks Lisa
Lisa
Glad you enjoyed my view of the yard. Yours is always beautiful.
Kim
I love garden photos! Beautiful!
Lisa
makes life a bit more beautiful....even the weeds are pretty
Carol
Made a tomato salad last night with that GIANT tomato you brought me...oh man was it delicious! Nothing better than ripe garden tomatoes in the summer...unfortunately we didn't have much luck with our tomatoes (only got a few small ones) Thanks for all the garden bounty!
Lisa
I always had trouble growing tomatoes in CT, but they seem to go crazy here in PA. This morning I made a fresh tomato sauce plus gearing up for a nice juicy BLT. Thanks for having me. I love you.