Читать книгу Dutch Treats - William Woys Weaver - Страница 11

Depending on which farmer you ask, Buhnedaag (Bean Day) is either June 4 or June 5 (St. Boniface Day). This is the critical date on the Pennsylvania Dutch garden calendar by which time most pole beans and lima beans should be in the ground if they are to produce seed for the next season. This is also the date when kitchen gardeners should start planting bush beans in 2-week successions so that there will be a fresh crop right up until frost. With so much hinging on this important date, we would have thought that some entrepreneurial Dutchman would have come up with a Bean Planting Festival, but the truth of the matter is, at that time of year everyone in the Dutch Country is too busy in the garden to bother with such distractions.

Just the same, Bean Day has its advocates, not to mention its unofficial herb: Buhnegreidel (“bean plant”), otherwise known as summer savory. Eating beans with summer savory is an old-time preventive remedy for gas (you know the kind we mean), so it is not surprising that it also figures in Bean Day Bread. That said, some cooks prefer to add sage (or a combination of sage and savory), while others add calendula petals for good luck, calendulas being the Dutch national flower. No one knows exactly when Bean Day was first observed, although we suspect it existed in many tentative and perhaps purely pragmatic forms until the 1840s, when Pennsylvania Dutch soldiers brought back black beans from the Mexican War.

Mexican Black Turtle Beans were suddenly touted as the next best thing to turtle soup (only if you add enough Madeira!), and while black beans were not exactly a Pennsylvania Dutch ideal – they preferred white, brown or speckled varieties, since bread made with black beans looks like rye bread – thus a good idea was born. I have taken it a little further by adding garlic and sunflower seeds. I have baked the loaf shown in the picture in a traditional square bride cake tin. More on bride cake tins on page 18. Otherwise, this recipe will make two loaves when baked in bread pans.

Yield: 2 loaves

1⅓ cups (8 ounces/250g) black beans

1½ tablespoons grated unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup (250ml) strong black coffee

½ ounce (15g) dry active yeast

1 cup (250ml) lukewarm milk or potato water

2 tablespoons (30ml) walnut oil or vegetable oil

5 cups (625g) bread flour (more or less)

1½ teaspoons minced garlic

1½ tablespoons salt

4 tablespoons (50g) toasted sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons (5g) fresh summer savory leaves, or 1½ tablespoons dry thyme leaves

Cook the beans in 1½ cups (375ml) water until tender. Then puree the beans with the cooking liquid. Put this in a deep work bowl. Grate the chocolate, then dissolve it in the hot coffee. Add this to the bean puree. Proof the yeast in lukewarm milk or potato water. Once the yeast is actively foaming, add it to the bean mixture. Whisk to create a smooth batter, add the oil, then sift in 3 cups (375g) of flour. Cover with a damp cloth and let the sponge rise until double in bulk.

Once risen and developing bubbles on top, stir down and add the garlic, salt, sunflower seeds, savory and about 2 cups (250g) of flour – only enough so that when kneaded, the dough no longer adheres to the hands. It is important to keep the dough as soft and pliant as possible. Knead for about 5 minutes, dusting the hands with flour, then cover and let the dough rise again until about double in bulk.

Knock down, form into loaves and lay them in greased bread pans measuring 4 by 11 inches (10 by 28 cm). Cover again. Once the dough has recovered and risen to within 1 inch (2.5cm) of the top of the loaf pans, set the bread in the middle of the oven, preheated to 450F (230C) Bake 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 400F (200C). Bake another 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F (180C) and continue to bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the bread taps done. Brush with ice water as soon as the bread comes from the oven. Cool on racks.