- 4 months ago
Discover 7 of Martha Stewart’s best bread recipes in this must-watch baking special. From classic white and multigrain loaves you can make much tastier and healthier at home, to creative and savory treats like babka, pumpkin bread and her favorite olive cheese loaf, these recipes will elevate any meal. Whether you're new to baking or a seasoned pro, there's something here for everyone. If you’ve ever felt intimidated by bread making, Martha’s easy no-knead and no-yeast quick breads are the perfect place to start. Packed with expert baking tips, step-by-step guidance, and creative ideas, this collection will help you bake bread that’s flavorful, foolproof, and fun to make at home.
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00:00This has a lot of great stuff in it. Oats, sunflower seeds, flax seeds,
00:07soaked bulgur wheat, and cooked wheat berries. Nice and plump once they're cooked. And the first
00:14step is proof the yeast. We need two packages of active dry yeast. Because this is a heavy bread
00:22and it has a lot of greens in it, you need two packages of yeast. Generally, two loaves of bread
00:28really require one package of yeast. In a half a cup of warm water, no hotter than 115 degrees.
00:35And for the food, instead of using sugar, we're using two teaspoons of honey. This is my flower
00:43honey, which I adore. Right, for my beehives, we had a bumper crop last year. I hope this year is
00:51as good. Let this just proof. You can whisk it up a little bit with a wire whisk.
01:00Okay, so assemble the rest of the ingredients. So measure out your flour into a big bowl. One cup
01:09of rye flour. Two and three quarters cup whole wheat flour. The rye flour, you might have a little bit
01:19of a challenge finding it. You can get it online very easily. But you can also find it in baking
01:25supply
01:26stores and in gourmet markets. We have so many of those markets in New York, we kind of take it
01:31for
01:31granted that everybody can find such things. But I'm sure you'll find it if you look for it. So that's
01:38two and three quarters cups of whole wheat flour, and two and a half cups of all purpose flour.
01:49With two tablespoons of kosher salt. And you can just whisk this all together.
01:57So there we have our dry ingredients, we have our grains, we have melted butter, four tablespoons of
02:04melted butter, and the yeast, which is ready to put straight into the bowl. Bread making is a good
02:12habit. And I think once people determine that it's fun, and that it is healthy, I think that's when they
02:22get hooked on making bread. So three tablespoons of honey. One and three quarters cup plus two tablespoons
02:32of warm water. Oh, and don't forget the butter, four tablespoons of melted butter.
02:40And you can add several cups of the flour mixture. And we're using a dough hook from the start.
02:54So as it mixes, add a little bit more of the dry, you can up the speed a little bit.
03:02So now finish off your dry.
03:06And now you can add the grains.
03:10At one and a third cups of cooked wheat dairies.
03:18add the one cup of soaked bulgur all you do is soak the bulgur wheat in water
03:28half a cup of flaxseed oh and a half a cup of rolled oats
03:41and a third of a cup of sunflower seeds
03:47I know my wild birds would love this bread because this is a dense dough you will want to
03:54knead it until it's really coming away from the sides of the bowl
04:01okay so this is very well mixed but you can see that it is still very very sticky I'm going
04:07to
04:07turn it out now and knead it for about oh three or four minutes to incorporate just maybe a little
04:14bit more flour so here get this turned out have a bench scraper ready
04:22doesn't that look healthy just by just looking at it and smelling it it's a healthy loaf a little bit
04:29of flour on it now when starting to knead bread use a bench scraper in one hand
04:37just in case you need your hand for something because your other hand might get very sticky
04:43and have two hands sticky use the heel of your hand and push the dough away from you
04:51the bowl is buttered it will take this dough and the dough will rise until it's about doubled in size
05:00that takes about an hour for this dough so there I think that is well needed the dough looks good
05:08plunk it down in the bowl cover it with plastic wrap spray the top with a little bit of vegetable
05:16spray
05:22and let it rise about an hour to an hour and a half now it's only for this show that
05:28magic happens
05:29the dough has doubled in size and you again deflate it processes are pretty similar and cut this in half
05:38you can get that out of the bowl cut it as evenly as you can you can weigh it if
05:46you want to make sure
05:47that the loaves are perfect most bakeries would weigh it and again flatten it out into a rectangle
05:55and roll it and fold it turning in the ends and sealing this bottom seam there it's very nice put
06:11it right
06:12into the pan work quickly this is not a difficult thing to do and you should not be afraid of
06:20your dough
06:22roll it up turn in the ends fun part is making the loaves oh and the dough feels great it's
06:31heavy
06:31but it's laden with good grains now we brush the tops with one egg white mixed with a little bit
06:40of
06:40water no yolk just the egg white and this will help the decorative grains that are going to be on
06:48the
06:48outside of the outside of the loaf adhere and then just a tablespoon of flax sprinkled lightly
07:00these are so shiny and pretty
07:04some of the oats
07:11and sunflower seeds
07:16and they're ready to rise again before they go into the oven to rise even further and form those
07:27beautiful multi-grain loaves about an hour until they double in bulk so here are the loaves doubled in
07:34size and they go right into a 450 degree oven they look so good now immediately reduce the temperature
07:44and let them bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes so the loaves are out of the oven you can
07:53extricate them
07:54from the pans
07:58they've cooled a little bit so i can handle them but they're well done really well done there they are
08:05pumpkin bread that i think you will enjoy very much it's the perfect example of what's known as
08:12quick breads no fuzzy yeast no kneading required and it's delicious straight out of the oven but it's even
08:19better the next day after the flavors of the spices have had a chance to develop so three and a
08:27quarter
08:27cups of all-purpose flour three quarters of a teaspoon of salt two teaspoons of ground cinnamon
08:36and one of my favorite spices all spice quarter of a teaspoon three teaspoons of baking powder
08:44make sure your baking powder is fresh and now a half a teaspoon of baking soda half a teaspoon of
08:52freshly
08:52grated nutmeg that's about half of a nutmeg there so i'm whisking with a wire whisk and these are our
09:03dry
09:03ingredients ready to incorporate into our wet ingredients which i'll make right now so one can
09:11this is a 15 ounce can of pumpkin now we've been using this in all our pumpkin recipes and by
09:19the
09:19way here's a surprising fact about canned pumpkin puree most manufacturers make it from one or more
09:26kinds of squash which can be less stringy and richer in sweetness and color than most pumpkins and one
09:33cup of dark brown sugar cream the brown sugar and the pumpkin and one cup of granulated sugar also
09:46four large eggs
09:52and we've changed the typical quick bread recipe to make it i think even more palatable and delicious by
10:00substituting melted butter 12 tablespoons of melted butter for an equal amount of vegetable oil or
10:08shortening i really prefer the taste of butter and i'd rather use a good creamery butter than oil in my
10:16bread
10:16so just let this get nicely incorporated and now you can add your butter
10:24butter and then you can start spooning in your dry ingredients alternating with a half a cup of buttermilk
10:43it smells really really delicious
10:51and a little bit more of the dry ingredients
10:57so these are these cake pans are buttered six by three they're really little miniature bread pans
11:03and you can also make two larger loaves eight and a half by four and a half
11:08these little ones are perfect for gifting and the easiest way i find to make sure that each pan gets
11:16an equal amount is to spoon equal amounts one by one into each pan you can also do as the
11:24professionals
11:25do and weigh the pans and it's very handy to have a good scale in your kitchen and work with
11:32it that way
11:33i think it's a very good idea then you'll get even sized loaves and most professional bakers do use scales
11:40because it's hard to divide into four equal portions yes this has a very rich orangey color so transfer
11:50this to a 350 degree oven 40 to 45 minutes so this quick bread really does slice very nicely
12:00they're named after grandmas or babas who traditionally baked them and babka is particularly
12:06popular right here in the northeast due to the large numbers of immigrants who settled here from
12:11eastern europe where babka actually originated my guest today is uri chef from bread's bakery
12:18uri you're going to share a very delicious version of babka how do we make it we need two large
12:24eggs
12:25okay i can do that for you yeah and i'll meantime take the flour this is so we're measuring this
12:31is
12:31all done by measuring and it's uh what 650 grams of flour right so what i like to do before
12:38we start
12:38i like to sift the flour because that's the way we're going to get another 10 to 15 percent more
12:44okay
12:46so i start with the milk inside the roll then the fresh yeast ah so three quarters of a cup
12:54of milk one
12:56ounce one ounce of fresh fresh fresh yeast take the flour take the flour okay so easy to just lift
13:04it
13:04up in the paper the whole thing the whole thing eggs half a cup and one tablespoon of granulated sugar
13:14and a teaspoon of salt the butter so room temperature very soft very soft yes so one stick plus two
13:21tablespoons
13:22of very soft butter unsalted and vanilla don't forget the vanilla yeah but just like what a half a
13:30teaspoon or a teaspoon oh that's hardly any yeah okay but we're gonna start to mix it in a very
13:37slow
13:37speed so we don't have the flour all over us so easy just everything together huh together very nice
13:44now one thing when i started though i never do anything else i don't go now answering the phone don't
13:51let anybody disturb me you sound like me i always say do not go and answer the door nothing that's
13:57right when i get very intimate with my dough okay and what do you think in assembled very nice together
14:04after all the ingredient was assembled together we can go a little bit higher on the speed if we look
14:12at the dough slowly slowly we see everything is assembled get shiny the mix is going to have a little
14:18bit harder time because the dough gonna get a little bit more elastic i see i think now the dough
14:23is
14:24almost ready it's fantastic very easy dough very easy though actually even no need even a tool to take it
14:32out right do you want a little flour so yeah just yeah this is nice now i'm gonna knead it
14:41with my hand
14:43so i have this is what i call my mom's way just working with my hand plum squeezing it to
14:50the table
14:51great so now i like because after we're going to roll it out and i i want a rectangular so
14:56i kind of
14:58like to give it oh i see and shapes it will be easy to roll it out later so we're
15:04going to come a little
15:04bit of flour here good and it has to rise for how long now it's wise for one hour in
15:12room temperature
15:13and then another hour in a refrigerator but we can also stretch it out the refrigerator time even
15:20up to eight hours so we can actually make the dough the day before the evening and then in the
15:26morning
15:27finish it up so i'm just making the cinnamon sugar with half a cup of sugar mixed with a teaspoon
15:33of
15:34cinnamon right ori is going to now roll the dough just sprinkle a little bit flour i'll take all the
15:41gas out i really want to get it rectangular so i kind of the edge before i start to work
15:47with a rolling
15:48pin and start to roll it out boy it's beautiful doll so roll it out to approximately 10 inches by
15:5528
15:56inches for this particular babka now this makes how many babkas this makes three babkas oh wow okay
16:02now you're gonna
16:07once merge the butter okay so i like to use this and scraper so again the butter really has to
16:14be
16:14very uh room temperature just spread like this finger now we can spread this all over so these are
16:22currants so tasty and walnuts so one and a half cups of walnuts very nice okay now in order that
16:32make sure everything stay we can just a little bit help it
16:39so neat this is very nice i want to roll it but i want to roll it very tight so
16:45a little bit patient
16:46because it's going to roll in and i'm going to go a little bit back and then you can help
16:52me oh
16:52it's just going a little piece at the time
16:58it gets easier as you go yeah
17:07beautiful and now
17:13i'm going to cut
17:16small one and then
17:19oh i see
17:22so the idea is crisscross them and then we twist them
17:27oh pretty oh and the openness is so beautiful and the opening is going to be
17:36so twisted okay i'm going to do this one okay so you want to have the same side oh oh
17:42i see yeah
17:42okay beautiful yeah and then in the mold
17:49now these ori tells me you might find things like this online or you can use a tin now we're
17:57gonna let
17:58it sit and proof for about one hour so i want to see what happened it's so beautiful yeah so
18:05these
18:06go in and what 350 oven a convection oven because those it helps them rise even more right right
18:12and for how long this is for half an hour maybe sometimes it's need to be
18:17turned in the middle of the baking maybe another five minutes 30 35 minutes and while they're baking
18:23um make a sugar syrup which is like a glaze for the finished babka so the sugar syrup two-thirds
18:29of
18:29a cup of water and half a cup sugar okay very easy and so that's just going to be like
18:36a shiny glaze on
18:37top right after the babka coming out of the oven gonna really make its moisture
18:44so the sugars will dissolve and while it's hot you brush it brush it okay so give it a good
18:50layer
18:51sugar sugar syrup so pretty and it does soak in doesn't it it is yeah and that's why we do
18:58it
18:58when it's hot what a fantastic gift for people to make it is so now we're going to make the
19:03white bread
19:04this is a basic white bread and now to a half a cup of warm water not hotter than 115
19:10degrees
19:10add one tablespoon of active dry yeast so this gets also one tablespoon of sugar
19:19a little food for that yeast and just whisk it up let it proof for about oh three to five
19:27minutes
19:27and right into the bowl of the mixer i'll start with three and a half cups of bread flour
19:35ultimately we're going to use about seven cups
19:37and one tablespoon of coarse salt kosher salt
19:47and two cups of warm water about 110 degrees is is good
19:56i'm just turning this on low
20:03medium it's definitely going to need some more flour
20:08i'll add another cup right now
20:13now we can add the proof yeast you can see the texture of these it's nice and creamy
20:17getting a few bubbles in the top it smells really good too i always use the smell test for yeast
20:27so we're up to seven cups of flour now we're going to let this
20:32knead for about seven minutes before we add four tablespoons of softened butter
20:41and the dough hook is working very well it is picking up all the excess flour in the bottom of
20:46the bowl
20:48and you can also let it rest for a minute or two i find that that really helps the water
20:53absorb into
20:54the flour and it gets softer and easier to work add the butter
21:00and let that become totally incorporated into the dough
21:11and now that the dough is almost finished kneading in the machine butter a big bowl this is going to
21:17be
21:17the rising bowl and this dough looks very nice spread a little flour not too much
21:27oh it has a little bit of fight to it that is the gluten all tight has to rest and
21:34loosen up and
21:35all the sugars in this dough are going to react with the yeast to become carbon dioxide and alcohol
21:44forming that rising process and so as they say smooth as a baby's bottom
21:52you can plop that in a bowl and cover well and let it rise until it's doubled in bulk that
21:58takes about an
21:58hour and if you want to avoid any sticking on the plastic wrap a very light spray a vegetable spray
22:06like that
22:10and let it rise
22:14the dough has risen now you can hit it and see what happens it deflates
22:20and we're going to cut this right in half because we're going to make two loaves
22:25eight and a half by four and a half loaf pans and cut your bread dough in half
22:31and shape it into a rectangle about as wide as the pan and then start folding the dough rolling it
22:41like
22:41this and pinching at the same time pinch the seam this is going to be the underside of the bread
22:48and tuck
22:50the edges under plop it down into the buttered pan do the same thing with the second batch
22:58cover it with the same plastic that you had
23:02and just leave this in a warm dry place until it's doubled in bulk
23:09so the bread has risen it took about an hour and a half to get to this size now this
23:14goes into a 425
23:16degree oven or a 400 degree oven if you're using convection for 15 minutes
23:23and then we're going to reduce the heat to 375 or 45.
23:31okay so here oh my gosh look at this the white bread is very nicely done
23:41and as soon as it comes out of the oven just brush it with a little bit of melted butter
23:48right on the top
23:51now if you're unsure whether the bread is done or not you can stick a instant read thermometer right
23:58in the side of the bread and the thermometer should read 205 degrees that will ensure that the interior
24:05of the bread is cooked now that is pretty very very beautiful bread and now for the rye bread that
24:16delicious bread that you're going to make your pastrami sandwiches on a half a cup of water
24:21no warmer than 115 degrees add to that two packages of the active dry yeast and stir the
24:30packages of yeast into your half a cup of warm water and add approximately two teaspoons of honey
24:40let this true for approximately five minutes
24:46now into your mixer one and three quarters cup of warm water
24:52three tablespoons more of honey
24:59and four tablespoons of butter melted and slightly cooled two tablespoons of caraway seeds
25:12caraway is the member of the fennel family oh and four and a half teaspoons of salt
25:21and now your yeast mixture which is nice and creamy and just showing signs of life
25:32so mix that up and you start adding your flour two and a half cups of rye flour first
25:42and four cups of all-purpose flour
25:55so i think this dough has been kneaded very nicely now you can turn it out
26:02as we did the multi-grain bread just turn it right out onto a floured surface
26:11you can see how elastic the dough is and how nicely textured it is
26:17and again turn with a bench scraper
26:23very nice dough
26:26and you can make this into a free-form loaf like rye bread is sold in the stores
26:33or you can bake it in a loaf pan put it in a buttered bowl and cover it with plastic
26:39wrap
26:41again to prevent sticking we can just spray a little bit of vegetable spray on the plastic
26:49let it rise for approximately an hour to an hour and a half
26:54so the dough has doubled in size you can again deflate it get it out of the bowl divide it
27:01in half
27:05and i form it into two equal size loaves
27:11and roll this up
27:15tuck the ends in
27:18this will rise nicely in the pans and it takes another hour or so to have the dough double in
27:27size
27:27again
27:32and wash with a white in water
27:40and sprinkle with a few caraway seeds
27:45and sprinkle with a few caraway seeds
28:07uncover it
28:09and get it right into the oven the oven's set at 450 degrees
28:15we're going to reduce that temperature immediately to 400
28:21and these loaves should be done in approximately 45 minutes
28:29it's chewy on the outside soft on the inside they're remarkably easy to make and they are so much
28:37better than store-bought six cups of flour in your mixing bowl nice level cups not an all-purpose
28:44flour for this but we're using bread flour bread flour is best for bread pretzels anything chewy
28:51and requiring plenty of structure so to the six cups of flour add one tablespoon of coarse salt this
28:59is kosher salt and you can whisk that together one and three quarters cup of lukewarm water
29:08one package of active dry yeast let this proof in the warm water and the water should be no hotter
29:16than 110 degrees be careful about that stir that up a little bit and the idea of proofing is really
29:24to
29:24test that the yeast is alive and one tablespoon of the best honey this is from my bees
29:32it's very nice flower honey let that just proof you want to see a few bubbles emerging on the surface
29:39of the water this can be put right here on the machine and
29:47lock the machine into the water it looks it looks nice and frothy add two large eggs i'm going to
29:56break
29:56them into the bowl first mix them up a little bit so it's a little bit eggy the dough
30:15and pour this into the flour and the dough hook will
30:19do a very nice job of saving you a lot of effort and now when the dough comes away from
30:27the bowl like
30:28it's doing add the butter four tablespoons a tablespoon at a time unsalted room temperature butter and you
30:39see how it just gets incorporated right into the dough it gets sticky and then it gets very nice and
30:46smooth
30:47so it's been kneading for about four minutes it looks very good it's come away from the bowl it's all
30:53on the dough hook release this from the machine and put the dough into a well buttered bowl to rise
31:03until
31:03doubled in bulk and that'll take just about one hour and look how beautiful the dough is it is developing
31:10its texture rising like this till doubled in bulk put it on a flower board so nice it is a
31:19beautiful
31:20texture it does not stick to the buttered bowl and you can just fold it into thirds and then fold
31:30it into
31:30thirds again a letter fold it's called just like that and put this fold side down right back into the
31:39bowl
31:40cover again and let rise for the second time and that's one more hour so here is our dough risen
31:49for
31:49the second time and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces now you might ask how does one do that
31:58well if you make a rectangle of approximately the same thickness
32:06you can cut this 12 pieces you can cut this down the middle and each of these pieces can be
32:16cut
32:17into six pieces always start in the middle so this is the middle
32:24and inches thirds and one way you can actually test your
32:31other dividing skills is to use a scale and that scale will tell you if your pieces are exactly the
32:39same there now the next thing form our kaiser rolls fold it and roll it
32:50form a knot like this
32:53so that goes like that and then this one goes under and through this one goes over
33:03and that's the first kaiser roll and keep working quickly so your dough doesn't dry out
33:11tie it in a knot it's a lot of fun to work with dough like this
33:16this one goes under and through there that is a perfect kaiser roll
33:24and these are now ready to rise covered again in a warm cozy place
33:33so now brush very lightly with a beaten egg just like that don't deflate don't press down hard
33:43and use a very soft natural brush for this these can be made ahead of time you can freeze them
33:52warm them when you're having a big breakfast party so there that's ready to go some poppy seeds poppy
34:00seeds tend to have a life of their own they dance so just sprinkle all over the roll as much
34:08as you like
34:10have your oven preheated to 350 degrees and this is going to take anywhere from 30 to 35 minutes rotate
34:19halfway through
34:23when these are cooled completely and cool them on a rack right out of the oven eat it the way
34:28you want
34:29to eat it i really do love these rolls slathered oh look at the great texture inside slathered with delicious
34:37butter
34:40and now i'd like to show you a really wonderful bread an olive cheese loaf that is no need two
34:46risings you bake it in the oven in an ungreased enamel cast iron it's great so measure into a big
34:55bowl three cups of bread flour now this is opposed to all-purpose flour bread flour has a higher gluten
35:02content
35:04and it is sold in the grocery stores as bread flour
35:12three cups of bread flour three quarters of a teaspoon of active dry yeast
35:19no need to proof the yeast as long as you're positive that it's fresh
35:24and one teaspoon of extra fine salt super fine stir that up
35:33okay dry ingredients ready uh you want one and three quarters cup quarter inch cubes of gruyere cheese
35:42you can use other kinds of cheeses if you have it
35:46but i like the taste of the gruyere with the olives
35:50and we're using manzanilla olives these big green olives that are very tasty
35:56and slice the manzanilla olives crosswise
36:00so here we have one and three quarters cups
36:03cheese add that to your dry ingredients and your gorgeous manzanilla olives i love that they are
36:10purplish around the pit and greenish on the outside stir this into the flour and then add
36:18approximately one and a third to one and a half cups of water depending on the weather
36:27and now now starts the good time there's absolutely no need to knead k-n-e-a-d
36:36so it's all holding together nicely scrape it all down cover and let rise until doubled in bulk
36:46and this is going to take in a warm dry place out of the sun 12 to 18 hours if
36:55you do your timing
36:56right you'll have it ready in time for dinner so here we have the dough it's like magic 18 hours
37:03later
37:03it has doubled in bulk and you can see that it's real sticky but beautiful now turn this out onto
37:11a well-floured surface
37:15and we're just going to turn it a couple times just to make sure all the ingredients are well incorporated
37:23very sticky wow fantastic
37:30don't be afraid to use some flour see how i've turned it on itself and you can do that again
37:40as if you were making french bread
37:46and then turn it put the folded pinch side down on a piece of wax paper
37:54flour this because you do not want it to stick and this will again rise until doubled in bulk
38:02cover it with wax paper and then with a muslin cloth or a flour sack cloth like this this takes
38:10about
38:10two hours to rise and then it takes about another hour to to bake so i would give yourself at
38:17least three
38:18hours so that you have nice hot crusty bread for your dinner party and now the dough has risen it's
38:26over
38:26here look at this doubled in bulk very carefully scrape the wax paper off
38:37now i've been preheating the pot now this is an essential step in the process because the pot a hot
38:45pipe
38:45it's going to make a really great crust on the bread there that can be discarded look at that dough
38:55okay now i'm going to put the hot pot right here
38:59takes about 10 minutes for it to get really hot the oven is 475 degrees so it is hot be
39:07careful
39:08don't touch the pot so we have to loosen the dough
39:15that little excess flour is not going to be a problem and you can pick the dough up
39:23and plop it into the pot now it is really hot cover the pot now you see i've taken the
39:31handle off
39:32it just unscrewed just took the handle off get that right on this goes back into the 475 degree oven
39:43after 25 minutes uncover and bake for another 15 minutes or so and here is our olive cheese no
39:52knead bread just come out of the oven it looks amazing look at that great color that is the color
39:57that you
39:58look for in homemade bread and now turn this out carefully it's coming out just right
40:07yes oh hot there now wouldn't you like to serve that to your family tonight with a great salad a
40:15homemade lasagna and olive gouyerre loaf it's absolutely terrific
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