Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Rosie Makes Ricotta Bread.

My next door neighbor brought us a loaf of bread
not too long ago and it was delicious.
I had to have her recipe.

Ricotta Bread
1/3 cup warm milk
1 package yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup ricotta cheese, drained
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter  
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
2 TB sugar 
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
In a small bowl, combine the warm milk,
 yeast, and 1 teaspoon sugar.
Let it proof.

Combine the ricotta, egg, sugar, and butter in an mixer.
Use the dough hook to blend the ingredients.
 Add the yeast mixture and mix to combine.
 Add  2 1/4 cups  flour and salt.
Mix well.
Transfer to lightly floured board and knead by hand,
adding the remaining 1/4 cup of flour, a tablespoon at a time,
 if the dough is too sticky.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
Place the dough into a greased bowl, turning to coat, and cover.
Set the dough aside to rise for about 1-1/2 hours or until double in volume.

Form dough into a loaf. 
Place in a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Cover and let rise for  30 to 45 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
Then turn out and cool on rack.

I put the ricotta in a cheesecloth-lined sieve,
covered it, and let it drain in the fridge overnight.


My mise en place:
drained cup of ricotta cheese
proofed yeast
melted butter
flour
egg


Ricotta, egg, sugar, butter in.

Poofy, foamy yeast going in.

Add in the flour.

Turn the shaggy mess out onto a lightly floured board.

Knead by hand until smooth and elastic.

Turn around in an oiled bowl and let rise.

Go outside and enjoy the garden.
Purple glad with larkspur in background.

Let rise.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes.

Place in a buttered loaf pan
and let it rise.

But don't let the bread over-rise like I did
because I wasn't paying attention 
and was doing about fifteen other things at the same time ...

... or the bread will sink,
like this.


It was still darn delicious.
I loved the texture.

This reminded me of pound cake.


This is a keeper.
I will be adding this to my bread baking repertoire.

2 comments:

Marilyn said...

Ooh, now I have to make this! Have you ever made your own ricotta? It's so easy and so delicious. Just don't walk away from it while it's cooking!

Rosie Hawthorne said...

I have made my own ricotta, Mar. I was trying to make cheese and it stopped short of ricotta.