Rustic Moroccan Loaves Recipes

Steps:

• Mix water, yeast, and salt together in a large bowl until mixture becomes foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir flour into yeast mixture until well incorporated. The dough will be loose and look wet. Cover bowl loosely with a damp towel and let sit for about 5 hours.
• Shape dough into 2 loaves using damp hands. Place loaves on a cornmeal-dusted work surface and score the tops a few times with a sharp knife. Allow loaves to double in size, 30 to 60 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Place loaves on a baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven, spraying the surface of the dough occasionally with water, until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, then add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for another minute or two. Add the celery, carrots and ginger, and cook for about 5 minutes, adding more olive oil as needed to make sure ingredients are well coated and softening.
• Add the spices: cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, cinnamon and salt, stirring well to mix. (You can alter spices to your liking, with more or less of those recommended or adding curry powder, nutmeg, allspice, black or cayenne pepper.) Add the tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring well and scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula to ensure the spices don't burn. Once mixture is cooked, remove pan from heat and let cool for about 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, combine in a large bowl the fresh herbs (cilantro, mint and parsley) and the eggs and bread crumbs. Add the ground lamb and the cooled mixture. Mix well with clean hands, until all ingredients are blended.
• Place the mixture into a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and cover with aluminum foil. Create a water bath by placing the loaf pan into a larger baking pan and filling the larger pan halfway with lukewarm water. (This helps keep the meatloaf moist by keeping the temperature more even during baking.)
• Put the meatloaf, in the bath, into the oven and cook for about 1 hour 30 minutes. After an hour, check the meatloaf, and remove the foil if you would like a firmer top. Bake until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees. (This is a good time to toast the pine nuts if you're making the sauce.)
• Remove pans from the oven, lift the loaf pan out of the water bath, and let the meatloaf cool for at least 5 minutes. If there is excessive grease, carefully pour that out and discard it. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cooled, depending on your taste.
• If you're making the sauce, mix the yogurt, lemon juice and pine nuts together with a spoon, and serve in a small dish on the side.

Steps:

• Line one heavy sheet pan with parchment and dust with cornmeal.
• Dissolve the yeast in 1/3 cup of warm (100-110 F) water and sugar. Allow to rise for 10 minutes.
• Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir with wooden spoon to combine. Make a well in the center and slowly add warm water, and yeast mixture. With a heavy wooden spoon, stir mixture until it forms a sticky dough that clings to spoon.
• Using clean, floured hands remove dough from spoon and bowl and place on lightly floured work surface. With both hands knead dough until it is slightly smooth. If dough still remains sticky add a little flour and mix inches Form the dough into a ball and put it back in mixing bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel, let rise in warm place for about one hour or until dough doubles in size.
• When dough has doubled in size, punch it down and return dough to bowl for an additional half hour to rise.
• After the half hour remove the dough and punch it down again. Knead slightly and form back into a ball tucking ends underneath. Place dough on parchment lined sheet pan, cover with kitchen towel, let rise again for 30 to 40 minutes until almost doubled in size.
• While dough is rising, preheat over to 425 degrees.
• When dough has risen, lightly dust with flour and place dough on middle rack in hot oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until bread is a deep golden brown. Remove loaf and place on rack to cool.

Steps:

• Combine the warm water, agave nectar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (not bread hook). Use a wooden spoon or whisk to mix well. Make sure the yeast is completely dissolved.
• Whisk together the flour mix, xanthan gum, and salt. Add to the yeast mixture in two batches, mixing on medium speed, until the dough is fully combined, about 1 minute.
• Dust a baking sheet liberally with flour mix, flour your hands, and divide the dough into two balls. Place the balls on the baking sheet and shape them into two 5-inch dome-shaped loaves.
• Brush the tops with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil using a pastry brush. Cover with a light dish towel or plastic wrap (but don't wrap it tightly, or you'll inhibit the rise) and let rise in a warm place (85°F) free from drafts. I like to place it in an unheated oven with a pan of hot water placed on the bottom of the oven. If it's a warm day, this won't be necessary. The top of the fridge is good, too. Let rise for 1 hour, or until you can push a finger in to one knuckle deep and the indent remains.
• In the last 20 minutes of your rise, preheat the oven to 350°F. (Remove the bread and pan of water if the loaves are rising in the oven and let them finish their rise somewhere else.)
• Uncover the loaves and use a sharp knife to cut a 1/2-inch deep cross in the top of each loaf. Brush the loaves with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush the tops of the loaves with water. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes longer, or until the bread sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. It will not brown, so don't use that as your judge. Let cool slightly on cooling racks. Break apart or slice with a serrated knife.