Velvety Bean Bread with Chives

This Velvety Bean Bread with Chives is moist and flavorful, and the beans add such a smooth texture to the bread.

I used Great Northern beans for this Velvety Bean Bread, but you can use cannelloni, navy, or butter beans for this bread. I also think pinto beans would work without altering the color or flavor of the bread too much.

This bean bread also has chives baked into it, and they add such a wonderful savory flavor. I have a small pot of chives hanging on the wall surrounding our back yard, and it's so convenient to be able to just go out there with a pair of scissors and snip off a handful. Regardless of how we treat them, they always seem to come roaring back, even if I give the small pot of chives a complete haircut.

My favorite way to enjoy this bread is toasted with cheddar cheese melted on top (I toast the bread, and then top it with cheddar and broil it until the cheese is melty and drippy)...  there's something about the combination of the cheese and chives.... so good! A sprinkle of crushed red pepper makes it even tastier.

I'm sure you can come up with even more delicious ways to enjoy this bean bread!

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are baking Bean Bread, a recipe chosen by our host kitchen, Kelly of A Messy Kitchen. After the recipe, be sure to check out the rest of the Babes' versions of this bread. We have all been known to make a recipe our own. Thanks Kelly for such a delicious bread.

Note: This is a very small loaf. I baked it in an eight by four inch loaf pan, and the dough barely touched the sides of the pan. I've got a 6 inch by 3 1/4 inch pan that I might experiment with for making this bread.

This is a super easy dough to work with, and the beans give the bread an amazing texture. You don't actually taste the beans, so it's a great way to sneak some beans into your diet, even if you don't like them. If you like potato bread, I'm pretty sure you'll like this bean bread just as much.

Velvety Bean Bread with Chives Recipe

Ingredients

• 100 grams (about 1/2 cup) canned white beans, rinsed
• 125 (1/2 cup) grams water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 65 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons) whole wheat flour
• 160 grams (about 1 1/3 cups) all purpose flour
• 1 heaping tablespoon chopped chives

Instructions

1. In a food processor, process the beans with some of the water until pureed. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Add the rest of the water, the olive oil, and the yeast to the bowl. Add the flours and the chives, and mix on medium low speed with the dough hook for about five minutes, until smooth (the dough can also be kneaded by hand).
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 2 to 3 hours.
4. Oil a loaf pan (see note above about pan size) and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Turn out the dough pat it into a rectangle, roll it into a loaf, and place it seam side down into the pan. Cover with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise for about an hour, until doubled.
6. Prepare a spray bottle with water. When ready to bake, spray the top of the loaf generously. Place the loaf in the oven and shut the door. Bake for 10 minutes, spraying the oven every three  minutes with water to add steam. Bake for 5 minutes more, and then reduce the the temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake for 25 minutes more until the loaf reaches an interior temperature of about 190 degrees F.
7. Remove the loaf from the pan and place it on a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Yield: one small loaf
Recipe adapted from Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World

The rest of the Bread Baking Babes' bean breads:

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• Notitie Van Lien – Lien
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
• Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle