Here is the finished product — Yogurt Herb Bread fresh from the oven. In the upper right corner, MT’s vintage edition of the cookbook ‘The Enchanted Broccoli Forest’ by Mollie Katzen is open to the page with the recipe on it.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Surrounding our test cook’s collection of fresh herbs (which she used instead of dried) are other ingredients, clockwise from left: honey, yogurt, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, whole wheat flour and unbleached white flour plus butter. In the upper right corner is the baking pan, waiting to be filled.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“I detect some rosemary,” page designer and Times Leader taste tester Ashley Bringmann said as she sampled a slice of herb bread fresh from the Times Leader test kitchen. “I love rosemary.”
“There’s dill in there, and parsley,” reporter Sam Zavada said. “They’re the two strongest flavors. It’s good.”
“I could see this as a side dish at Thanksgiving,” editor Liz Baumeister said. “I really liked the blend (of flavors) and I think the texture was perfect.”
But not everyone was delighted with the savory herb bread that I’d made, inspired by a recipe from my vintage (1982) copy of Mollie Katzen’s vegetarian cookbook “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.”
“Savory?” columnist Bill O’Boyle said. “Why do you call it savory?”
Well, I told him, it’s not as sweet as you might expect, say, a loaf of banana bread or pumpkin bread to be. This savory “Yogurt & Herb Bread” has only 1/3 cup of honey, as compared to the whole cup (or maybe even 2 cups) of sugar you’d find in recipes for similar size loaves of a sweeter kind of bread.
Also, instead of being flavored with “sweet” spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, it gets its flavor from herbs that might also appear in an entree or side dish as opposed to a dessert.
“To be honest with you, I’m not a savory bread fan,” Bill said. “It tasted a little perfume-y to me. But I appreciate your efforts.”
When I brought the herb bread to the newsroom, I brought along a stick of butter, too, because I thought some people might enjoy the bread more with a spread.
“Everything’s better with butter,” Bill said.
Ashley and Sam tried their samples plain and enjoyed them that way, with Ashley adding “It would go well with a spinach-y cheese dip.”
“It’s different from every other bread I’ve ever had, in a good way,” said Liz who, like Bill, tried a sample with butter.
Although I’ve had this “Enchanted Broccoli Forest” cookbook for decades, this week marks the first time I’ve made the herb bread. I followed author Mollie Katzen’s direction to use one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of unbleached white flour. I even followed her direction to use an electric mixer on the wet ingredients — though I’m more comfortable with a plain wooden spoon. (Don’t worry, I called Mark into the kitchen to make sure the electric mixer adventure went smoothly.)
The one place where I deviated from the recipe was where it calls for several tiny amounts of dried herbs. I asked myself, “Why should I use 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil when I have fresh basil in the garden?”
I also have fresh parsley, oregano and thyme (herbs mentioned in recipe) as well as sage and rosemary (not mentioned in the recipe, but I used them anyway.) I bought some fresh dill at the store, and since we had some dried tarragon in the cupboard, I added that to the mix.
When you substitute fresh herbs for dried, I’ve read that you should triple the amount. So that’s what I did, chopping up several tablespoons of fresh green herbs. It made the kitchen smell great as it was baking. (Perfume-y, some might say.)
And, overall, this bread was very easy to make. Here’s the original recipe, from “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.”
Yogurt & Herb Bread
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 large beaten eggs
1 cup firm yogurt
1/3 cup light honey
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon.
optional: 1 tablespoon each dried parsley and dried chives
***
Sift together the first five ingredients. Make a well in the center of the bowl.
Beat together (high speed on an electric mixer) the next four ingredients for 3-5 minutes until frothy. Add the herbs and beat well.
Pour the liquid herb mixture into the well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended.
Pour into a well-buttered loaf pan and bake 40 to 50 minutes, until knife inserted into center of bread comes out clean.
Note: The flavors the herbs get stronger as the bread ages. You will have a chance to notice this if the bread sits around for several days before it is completely devoured.
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