Roasted Beet Bread

If you like bread then you will love this recipe. I guarantee it. I promise I take my bread very seriously and would never lie about a thing like that.

It is hard to describe the flavor of this bread without actually trying it. The color is beautiful and the texture is remarkable as well.

If you are new to yeast bread baking, do not be afraid to give this a try. You won’t regret it. It is one of my new favorites.

Plus, it’s pink so it’s pretty.

Plus, it looks really cool so everyone will ask you about it and think you are awesome.

Go HERE for step-by-step instructions. The Cooking Bread.com site has great photo instructions so you know what things are supposed be looking like along the way.

Roasted Beet Bread

 Ingredients

 Night Before 

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 cup flour

1 cup hot water (From tap is hot enough)

 Day of:

1 cup roasted beet puree

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp instant yeast

1/4 cup hot water (from tap if hot enough)

1 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme

1 tsp salt

2 - 3 cups flour

.

Directions

The night before combine all the "Night Before" ingredients together and mix with a wooden spoon. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit on the counter for 12 to 16 hours. (Put in a bowl that will allow room to rise)

After the "Night Before" ingredients have sat, pour it into a large bowl. Add in the pureed beets, whole wheat, instant yeast, and hot water. Mix with a wooden spoon till smooth. Allow to sit for 10 minutes uncovered.

Now, add in the fresh thyme and salt; mix till smooth. Start to add in the flour a half a cup at a time. Once it becomes too hard to mix in the bowl pour out onto a flat surface and knead for 10 minutes. This will be a sticky dough, so be careful not to add to much flour. Add just enough flour to stop the dough from really sticking to your fingers when kneading.

After kneading add a little olive oil to a bowl. Place dough into the bowl and turn over a few times to very lightly coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap.

Allow to rise for 1 1/2 hours or till double in bulk.

After the dough has risen, pour out onto a lightly floured, flat surface. Cut in half and shape into desired shape. Place the shaped dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal. Spray the tops with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap for 1 hour or till double in bulk.

 Before the final rising.

Ready to go in the oven ;)

Preheat oven to 400.

After they have risen again, sprinkle a little whole wheat flour on top and slash an x on top of each loaf. Place into preheated 400 degree oven with a cast iron pan to create steam.

(You can create some steam by placing a cast iron pan on the bottom of the oven the same time that you turn on the oven. Once you place the loaves into the oven pour about a cup of boiling water into the hot pan and close the door.)

Bake for 30 -35 minutes or till when tapped on the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow.

So pretty!

 I made this originally for Valentine’s Day because of the color. It went really well with all of the other Valentine’s-y food Sue and I had made for dinner.

I took this another step and made it into garlic toast (slathered it with garlic butter and then toasted in the oven until the butter melted and crust was crispy) which just about killed me because it was soooooooo incredibly scrumptious I couldn’t stop eating it.

Seriously.

Look at the garlic toast goodness. How can you resist that?

I tried to make myself feel better by telling myself it was totally healthy because it had beets in it.

What? Beets are healthy.

Oh, here is how you get the beet puree if you need some help with that:

Start with some beets. I did a bunch because I also used some to make the Roasted Beet Hummus as well. Give them a quick scrub under running water to get rid of the cooties.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place them on a large square of tinfoil. If you like, you can throw in some finely chopped garlic for good measure. (I did, it tastes even better)

Tent tinfoil over beets and pinch seam to seal. Set tinfoil packet directly on middle rack in oven. If you are worried about spillage then place a cookie sheet on the bottom rack.

Roast beets for 40 - 70 minutes or until smooth when pricked with a fork. Let them cool and then peel them and cut them into smaller chunks.

Place beet chunks (and any of the roasted garlic bits if you used them) into a food processor and process until smooth.

Sue and I disagreed on how to roast the beets. I, of course, was right about the method and Sue was wrong and a really poor loser.

Okay.

I may be stretching the truth a bit.

As it turns out, Sue was right but I think I have been complimenting Sue and being a little too nice to her lately so I didn't want to admit she was right...AGAIN....

So, for the purpose of this story:

I was right and Sue was a big jerk face.

If you end up with extra puree you can always throw any leftover beet puree into soups or casseroles to up the nutritional value.

UPDATE: I made the beet bread into buns -

And then made them into paninis using our Steak and Bacon Cheddar Balls as filling.

It. Was. Awesome.

Just sayin'

 

UPDATE #2:

 

 

I made this incredible Roasted Beet Bread, Feta, Turkey, Roasted Beet Slider for a blogger challenge. It was so good. Thought I would share the photo because it just looked so darned pretty!