Hot Buttered Popcorn Bread

Cooking and baking in the kitchen for me is the same as making art. It's what I love and what I am passionate about! If I had a bigger grocery budget, I would experiment much more, but for now, little rarities that require semi-normal ingredients will do!

Here is a fun bread recipe that Eric and I made together this week. Although it sounds strange, it is really delicious! :)

Hot Buttered Popcorn Bread

Thanks to Marcy Goldman and her book "Passion for Baking"

SERVES 16 , 2 large loaves (change servings and units)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup popcorn, to pop (about 5 C. when popped)
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 3 3/4 teaspoons yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tablespoon butter (optional)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 5-6 cups flour

FINISHING TOUCHES

• 1 egg
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons salted butter, melted

Directions

1. 1

   Grease two 9x5 loaf pans (or use a pizza pan and make it a round loaf).

2. 2

   Pop the popcorn--do NOT butter!

3. 3

   Whirl the popped corn through the blender, enough to make 2 1/2 cups.(it is very fluffy); set aside.

4. 4

   In mixing bowl, mix water & yeast; let stand 2-5 minutes to dissolve yeast.

5. 5

   Mix in sugar, oil, butter and salt; blend well.

6. 6

   Add ground popcorn and 3 cups of the flour; mix well. Knead with dough hook on slowest speed--6-8 minutes, adding more flour to form a soft, bouncey dough.

7. 7

   Remove dough hook, spray dough ball with cooking spray, cover bowl with large plastic (clear) bag; let rise 60-90 minutes, doubled in volume.

8. 8

   Turn out dough onto lightly floured counter, gently punch down; divide in half and form two loaves; place in greased pans.

9. 9

   Whisk eggie and sugar & salt in a small bowl; brush top of loaves with egg wash (set egg wash aside for later); cover loaves loosely with plastic wrap, rise for 45-60 minutes, doubled in size.

10. 10

    Preheat oven to 375; brush loaves with egg wash, dust with cornmeal (optional).

11. 11

    Set in oven and turn heat down to 350; bake until golden brown for 35-45 minutes.

12. 12

    Pull bread from oven, liberally brush with melted butter; cool in pans for 10 minutes; turn out onto rack.

13. 13

    Slice and eat. Yum!

14. 14

    LEFTOVERS: Slice and toast. Try it with garlic-honey. Oh my!
15. This is the same recipe I used...lucky for me, someone already typed it all out, so I copied and pasted it into here.
16. A note for Kate: Don't worry about the dough hook thing...they are assuming you have a mixer that kneads dough. I kneaded it all by hand and it was fine, but make sure you knead it until it is smooth and light and if you gently poke it, the dough should bounce back into place quickly. Also, don't brush too much egg on the tops of the loaves. I put on too much and they ended up sinking instead of being big fluffy loaves...they were kind of short and flat. So just do a little bit of egg.
17. Also, make sure you eat it fresh out of the oven!!! It is SO YUMMY warm and fresh!!!
18. Enjoy!