tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-219958182024-03-07T01:02:04.061-06:00breadbasketcaseAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.comBlogger315125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-84610557109238432532016-01-11T13:28:00.000-06:002016-01-11T13:28:21.050-06:00Rose's Sweet Potato Loaf<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This slice of sweet potato bread looks almost exactly like the slice from the same bread I made almost ten years ago. It's nice to know that some things never change. I also thought--10 years ago--that this loaf would make great hamburger buns. I still think so, but haven't tried it yet. Maybe in another 10 years.<br />
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I think this was labelled as a yam, not a sweet potato, but, according to multiple internet sources, it's a sweet potato. Real yams aren't sold in most American grocery stores, even though a sweet potato labelled as a yam is sold. I started to read about the Great Yam Conspiracy, but then decided it wasn't that interesting. But I got a huge one, so I could feed the rest of it to granddaughter Lily, who is just starting to enjoy mashed and pureed foods. Anyway, I used buttermilk in place of some of the water, and I think buttermilk just added to the flavor.<br />
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The deep orange flesh of the yam/sweet potato colors the dough, but the rich color of the vegetable is muted by the time it mixes with flour. To my surprise, I didn't have any dry milk. I must have finally used up a package and unceremoniously put the empty package in the trash. You'd think a person would remember that--kind of like finishing up a bottle of Tabasco sauce, but I don't think I've actually done that.<br />
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The dough was very soft and sticky, so I worked in more flour than I usually would. It didn't take too much flour to become manageable, although it was still soft.<br />
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It was a below-zero day outside, so I brought out my Brod & Taylor folding bread proofer, and the lucky bread dough cozied up in 80-degree surroundings. I'm sure it was very happy.<br />
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After baking and the butter glaze. We went out for dinner just 10 minutes after I took the bread out of the oven, and didn't get back until after the requisite cooling time. That was lucky because the bread smelled so good that I probably wouldn't have been able to wait. As it was, three hours later, it sliced perfectly. It tasted like an old-fashioned, State Fair medal-winning white bread, except that it had a more complex flavor (and it wasn't white). <br />
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I hope it doesn't take me 10 years to bake this again.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-37923880507707369632015-12-04T16:24:00.002-06:002015-12-04T16:24:34.397-06:00Challah with Biga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I first saw Rose's new, improved <a href="http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2014/09/challah_soft_moist_and_flavorf.html#.VmIAYLiDGko">recipe</a> for Challah, I got a little defensive on behalf of the original Challah in The Bread Bible. "That was an excellent challah," I said to myself, and didn't need any improvement. But I decided to try the new-fangled challah, and, you know, it was better. Making the bread with old sourdough starter or a simple biga really does intensify the taste. This is a wonderful bread, and it's my new favorite challah too.<br />
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Of course, you can't just decide you want a piece of challah and wander out to the kitchen and bake a loaf. No, you'll have to do a little planning, especially if you use the biga, as I did. The biga is just a small amount of flour and water, plus a tiny bit of yeast, left to rise for about 4 hours, until doubled in size and making a few bubbles. Then into the refrigerator for three days. No, not three hours, three days. If it gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator, you may forget that you were making challah.<br />
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Assuming you don't forget about the biga, on the fourth day, it's time to mix up the dough. Rose says challah is traditionally made with oil instead of butter so it can be served with either milk or meat meals. But she gives you permission to use butter, so I did, and, of course, that gives you a more buttery flavor. <br />
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Braiding is by far the trickiest part of making challah. By far. I looked at a video of Maggie Glezer <a href="http://www.finecooking.com/videos/braiding-challah.aspx">demonstrating</a> how to braid a six-strand challah, and I couldn't quite bring myself to try it. Instead, I used this little <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TOKt18P7z4">video</a>. It's pretty simple: line up four tapered pieces of dough and braid them. Strand 4 over strand 2, 1 over 3, and 2 over 3. Repeat until you run out of strands.<br />
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I confess that the first time I tried numbering the strands, I didn't understand that the strands are numbered by their position. That is, strand 4 doesn't remain strand 4; it becomes strand 2 when it goes over strand 2. If you try to remember which strand started out as strand 4, you'll not only get very confused, you'll also end up with an oddly-shaped loaf of bread. I figure that if I made challah weekly for about two years, I'd get good at braiding. <br />
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The dumbest thing I did was to glaze the bread before I proofed it. And the really dumb thing I did was to read the directions four or five times because I was sure that couldn't be correct. And each time I misread the directions in the same way. Oddly, that mistake didn't mess up the final result as much as I thought it would.<br />
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The color is so rich and creamy-looking, and the texture is soft but not cottony. The crust is dark brown but there's not even a hint of burned-toast flavor. Sometimes new and improved really does mean new and improved, not just smaller and more expensive.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-57296509848971483182015-10-12T11:45:00.002-05:002015-10-12T11:45:45.487-05:00Banana Feather Loaf<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Rose's Banana Feather Loaf. As in "light as a feather." This is a deliciously light sandwich bread that's made with a banana. People seem to differ as to how noticeable the banana flavor is. I thought there was more than a hint of banana, which got even more definite when the bread was toasted. This is not at all bad, but it does somewhat limit its versatility. As someone pointed out, "It's not the ideal bread for a tuna melt," although I've never tried it that way, so I can't say for certain. <br />
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It's made as so many breads in <i>The Bread Bible</i> are made--with a sponge starter: a fun and foolproof method of getting extra depth of flavor without using a sourdough starter or biga. Flour, yeast, and water (or other liquid) are mixed to a paste, and are covered with a blanket of more flour and yeast and salt. After the bottom layer starts to bubble up and surround the flour layer, you can either go ahead and make the bread or let it do a slow rise in the refrigerator, up to overnight. This allows you to be in charge of the timing of your bread.<br />
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After you add in mashed banana and butter, you end up with a malleable, not-too-sticky dough.<br />
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Which rises nicely. Those dark flecks are just part of the mashed bananas. <br />
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Then it's shaped into a loaf, and it rises again.<br />
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After being baked and brushes with melted butter, it's a pretty, shiny, appetizing little loaf. It makes a smallish loaf and likes to have lots of color. I like a golden brown loaf, with emphasis on the brown, but if you like your bread at the paler end of the spectrum, you may want to lower the heat after just a few minutes at the initial high heat.<br />
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This tendency to over-brownness especially applies when you're making toast. (Toast with peanut butter may be the ideal way to eat this bread). You do have to watch the toaster or you'll end up with burned edges. And I mean burned, not just dark brown. Not too serious, as long as it's just around the edges. Fruit, carbs, and protein, all in one slice of toast! Efficiency at its finest.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-5892430551259749052015-09-14T17:38:00.000-05:002015-09-14T17:38:20.671-05:00Basic Hearth Bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For a time, I was making this bread regularly, and I'm sure I've blogged about it several times. I have no new insights. But if you wanted to choose a bread to be your own signature loaf, you could do worse than choosing this one.<br />
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It's easy, especially if you have a stand mixer. It has only a few ingredients, and if you always have instant yeast on hand (in the freezer, where it keeps for years, and despite warnings I've heard, does not appear to lose any of its rising power while being stored in the cold), and it's good. Which is the important part. The small amount of whole wheat flour used doesn't bring it into the whole-grain category, but it does add a touch of nuttiness without any of its attendant bitter taste. <br />
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Everyone seems to be using the business-letter-fold these days, but I first learned it from Rose, so I'll give her credit, even though perhaps some French baker in the 15th century first thought of it. (But probably didn't call it a business-letter-fold because nobody would have known what he was talking about).<br />
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You can bake this in a loaf pan for sandwich bread, or you could form it into a torpedo shape, but I like the round loaf. <br />
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And you can get as fancy as you want with the slashes, but I just did the good old tic-tac-toe board. <br />
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<b><i>The Bread Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum</i></b></div>
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The fine crumb makes it an excellent sandwich bread and great for toast, too. I almost resent it when a bread doesn't toast well. That's part of its job. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-83803754954514867842015-06-03T16:54:00.001-05:002015-06-03T16:54:50.678-05:00Ricotta Loaf <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love this bread as much as I did the first and second times I made it, so I think I can safely say that it's a loaf that you'll want to keep in your repertoire. This time, I noticed that it tasted a little bit like corn, but I really think that must be some kind of trompe l'oeil effect. With the yellow color and slightly grainy texture, it looks slightly cornbread-ish, but there are no corn or corn-related ingredients in it. The yellow is from butter and egg. The soft but somewhat granular texture is perhaps attributable to the ricotta, although I can't support that theory with any actual information.<br />
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I may have destroyed my food processor with this bread. If so, it will at least have died for a good cause. The butter wasn't soft enough, which I didn't realize until the processor started groaning. There were still big unincorporated pieces of the butter when the groan turned to a wheeze, and I decided it was time to take it out.<br />
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I kneaded it by hands for a few minutes until all the butter was mixed in and a little more flour was incorporated. It turned into a soft and only slightly sticky dough.<br />
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The rest was easy enough--so easy that Jim missed shots of the shaped dough going into the loaf pan, as well as shots of me slashing the bread. I actually think he may not like being in the same room with me when I'm armed with the bread slasher.<br />
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It was done after 35 minutes. I didn't bother to take its temperature because the "thwonk" it makes when it's done is pretty reliable. At least I've never burned a loaf of bread (although I suppose there's always a first time).<br />
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The last time I made this bread I must have been on a healthy foods kick because I forewent the optional melted butter wash (why would I do that?), and I ate my first slice with lemon curd, trying to pass it off as a fruit. This time I slathered it with butter, both melted and room temperature. My new motto is, "When you're 70, you can do whatever you want to." This motto is no good until you're actually 70.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-74034872231726069602015-05-05T17:50:00.000-05:002015-05-05T17:50:35.955-05:00Touch of Grace Biscuits II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wish I remembered baking these biscuits in my first Bread Bible go-round, but when I read the directions, it brought back exactly nothing. Moreover, the directions didn't make sense to me: was all the one cup of flour (not self-rising) supposed to go on the biscuits? Was I supposed to dust off the extra flour or add even more? My first blog post was of no help whatsoever--there was only one picture (which turned out to look better than my second effort) and no description of the taste or texture, which is what I was interested in.<br />
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In the first post, I said I had some self-rising flour, but I couldn't find any White Lily because apparently we are too far north (still true). I knew I had some self-rising flour in my flour cabinet, so I wasn't worried about that. Just before I started measuring the flour, I had an uneasy feeling that I'd better check the use-by date because, now that I thought about it, I actually couldn't remember buying any self-rising flour in the recent past. Uh-oh. Use by May 7, 2006! This must be the same bag of flour I bought for the biscuits the first time I made them. I hate to think how this ten-year-old flour would have performed. I threw it out, and used a combination of bleached flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. <br />
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This is one of just a few of Rose's recipes that uses vegetable shortening instead of butter. I'm glad it's not a trend.</div>
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All the ingredients after they rest for a few minutes. As promised, it's a very soft dough, although, thankfully, it seems to have more structure than mashed potatoes.</div>
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At this point, I do remember making the biscuits ten years ago. I remember because when I read the instructions and saw shaping your fingers like a C, I had no idea what she was talking about, but it became clear when I actually did it. This is the same reaction I had ten years ago. This time I didn't make the biscuits large enough because I had more than 9. They looked better when I was a rank amateur.</div>
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They're darker and not as high as my 2006 pan of biscuits was. I like the color, but I wish they were higher. Now that I taste them, I can sort of see why I didn't try to describe them. I'm not sure I can describe them now. They were very soft, fluffy, and tender--almost too tender and soft, especially when warm. They were hard to break apart (even using the fork tine method) when they were warm, and they lost some of their flavor when they cooled. Jim loves these biscuits--he really gobbled them up. Some with butter, some with jam, some with butter and jam, some plain. He liked them all ways. I think I prefer a more substantial, flakier biscuit that's rolled out and cut with a biscuit cutter. But I'm pretty sure there are a few more biscuit recipes in The Bread Bible, as well as a few fabulous scones, so by the time we're done, we'll all have our favorite. Unless, of course, we forget about them before we get to the end of the book.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-20562075482924071832015-03-31T20:06:00.000-05:002015-03-31T20:06:51.054-05:00Pita Bread - The Bread Bible<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXHpNn5R1lnq9aVJo-GxnQv_Cg10Bno3K3QEDGvQt9VFbhQE97NTLnZGDBTSbNulrAyKc2lQasjQ5e8mgwhEJUD5UZmx0cpfAiFPH9FSOgq8KQCDax2gZ0xiSpGz2Zdu-qiD7/s1600/Pita+Bread-32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXHpNn5R1lnq9aVJo-GxnQv_Cg10Bno3K3QEDGvQt9VFbhQE97NTLnZGDBTSbNulrAyKc2lQasjQ5e8mgwhEJUD5UZmx0cpfAiFPH9FSOgq8KQCDax2gZ0xiSpGz2Zdu-qiD7/s1600/Pita+Bread-32.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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When I made pita bread in my first go-round of The Bread Bible, I wasn't even using photos. I envisioned writing a paragraph or two about each bread, and it wasn't until the fourth or fifth week that I started using photography. That is, I started Jim's career as a food photographer. This time he took 59 photos, not counting the ones he discarded, for me to choose from. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vFdJMwL3vSmTM3jcqFNsVaZALBr77AMZOzQ6o-sNVXlmMazhf2hFzEWXEqyyITr_x4oesQaEnW8ulW91Ndwb7-IFl40DqM3OVnIpw6hxzl3adIJcD_9gPw_EyeGseOk1O6sV/s1600/Pita+Bread-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vFdJMwL3vSmTM3jcqFNsVaZALBr77AMZOzQ6o-sNVXlmMazhf2hFzEWXEqyyITr_x4oesQaEnW8ulW91Ndwb7-IFl40DqM3OVnIpw6hxzl3adIJcD_9gPw_EyeGseOk1O6sV/s1600/Pita+Bread-3.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is about as basic as bread dough gets: flour, water, salt, and yeast (with a bit of olive oil thrown in).<br />
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After 10 minutes in the KitchenAid, it's soft and shiny and lovely to stretch. I added just a few grams of extra water to make it a bit stickier.<br />
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After being in the refrigerator for 24 hours, it's grown, even though it was brutally punched down for the first few hours of its stay. Apparently pita bread dough has a masochistic streak.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBngmQGnAXd52N7vcHHOEmrEQi-aULvAK0XOmYO1lqTio8KiFzPucb4Y18HSoDPJ-U7xwLWNoKqGtJ2O6PoVkL58WFPD-qOA9XCjCqTvo3qa5WcHltetCQpDbfv_lzdVdFbaxs/s1600/Pita+Bread-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBngmQGnAXd52N7vcHHOEmrEQi-aULvAK0XOmYO1lqTio8KiFzPucb4Y18HSoDPJ-U7xwLWNoKqGtJ2O6PoVkL58WFPD-qOA9XCjCqTvo3qa5WcHltetCQpDbfv_lzdVdFbaxs/s1600/Pita+Bread-14.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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This looks like I'm trying to make pita croissants, but I'm just cutting off bits of dough to make every piece about 100 grams. (I made the six-inch size).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaa3QDZZ-SVufg03mPscmHtvwKREMc8fINj3APSNigN_56w9cdbHLYK8WpEQ1SL_buHqDAbCY-nJwDiUNTayMHHWxMFwW7f19osNPstqo4J8QM-EJuUSdJzlCNAejX-0nFZbl/s1600/Pita+Bread-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaa3QDZZ-SVufg03mPscmHtvwKREMc8fINj3APSNigN_56w9cdbHLYK8WpEQ1SL_buHqDAbCY-nJwDiUNTayMHHWxMFwW7f19osNPstqo4J8QM-EJuUSdJzlCNAejX-0nFZbl/s1600/Pita+Bread-17.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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My favorite rolling pin has tapered edges, so Woody doesn't think I should use it for pie crust. Neither does Jim. They both claim that it will lead to uneven dough, but it's French, and they should know what they're doing, right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_NV_ZtmBuygJMz3VqV7YKVFTe79JRHQ1CKA0mPRQTYHKCBChfM4ZcvjulGYaBuL8mpjpF-elRgVFZBFIvK4z7JtRpfKxlv7rQCX1YCtT5uOG4JFN0a5V9VCuhiSdiETmBFtA/s1600/Pita+Bread-20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_NV_ZtmBuygJMz3VqV7YKVFTe79JRHQ1CKA0mPRQTYHKCBChfM4ZcvjulGYaBuL8mpjpF-elRgVFZBFIvK4z7JtRpfKxlv7rQCX1YCtT5uOG4JFN0a5V9VCuhiSdiETmBFtA/s1600/Pita+Bread-20.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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One of my more evenly rounded attempts, and my oven test case.<br />
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This is how it looked after 3 minutes. It looks a little doughy in the middle, but it was actually done. I baked the rest of them for 4 or 5 minutes, though, and they puffed a little more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_j9FJg21HeFVyxkvmtvx2eIMxmVOGpXzOLr9W6Phsf2-32xAxj3qLxGMUpTcIIFY5aWZj9Z5vJw5P174Dbo9rmmkhXh60eNTlKbiGJdt6Ip00lXUlf7n_4KzfNMyx63G1jOjF/s1600/Pita+Bread-30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_j9FJg21HeFVyxkvmtvx2eIMxmVOGpXzOLr9W6Phsf2-32xAxj3qLxGMUpTcIIFY5aWZj9Z5vJw5P174Dbo9rmmkhXh60eNTlKbiGJdt6Ip00lXUlf7n_4KzfNMyx63G1jOjF/s1600/Pita+Bread-30.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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Some of them puffed like crazy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXoZSmdLAGaEqeaPlzHyYZkfZxy98tK6vqb_KC82ubCXkbbbvG3VeIBpn8SznkB3JbDDoH-AcFY3LsYu9tfII7TyIpzh3wdsmb1nz22RkiFmf_P1ByQdvU8_g-Lx2CJgTCOfi/s1600/Pita+Bread-42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXoZSmdLAGaEqeaPlzHyYZkfZxy98tK6vqb_KC82ubCXkbbbvG3VeIBpn8SznkB3JbDDoH-AcFY3LsYu9tfII7TyIpzh3wdsmb1nz22RkiFmf_P1ByQdvU8_g-Lx2CJgTCOfi/s1600/Pita+Bread-42.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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At 5 minutes, they definitely get some color, but I preferred them that way.<br />
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I used them as a base for a dinner sandwich: cheddar cheese, thinly sliced apples, toasted walnuts, thyme, bacon, and Parmesan. Delicious, especially the last bites of crispy crust. When I ate that crust, I could really tell that this was a variation of Rose's pizza crust recipe, which we'll get to eventually. At one bread a month, it's going to take us a long time to get through this cookbook, but I guess we're not in any hurry. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-60275758533357665042015-03-03T15:35:00.000-06:002015-03-03T15:35:47.160-06:00Rosemary Focaccia <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiihU1zvowNEVN8UdeLFATud153x2UPn7QxqhuxqCjFtHa6a-i5eBzXkZ9wQR44imo3l-O3Uw1kPUsrIClSqHNWHp5wajjnBQfAP0-7gJRA7vZviv6xWdNrYM1XON89c6Aby6vj/s1600/Rosemary+Focaccia-26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiihU1zvowNEVN8UdeLFATud153x2UPn7QxqhuxqCjFtHa6a-i5eBzXkZ9wQR44imo3l-O3Uw1kPUsrIClSqHNWHp5wajjnBQfAP0-7gJRA7vZviv6xWdNrYM1XON89c6Aby6vj/s1600/Rosemary+Focaccia-26.jpg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's hard to understand how I could have such fond memories of the biggest baking disaster of my life--this very same beautiful rosemary focaccia, the first bread I made from The Bread Bible, and one that almost led to the death of my nascent bread-baking hobby. <br />
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Those who have known me for a while know this story already, so feel free to skip through it. I got <i>The Bread Bible</i> for Christmas in 2005 and decided I would bake all the recipes in a year. I got a new KitchenAid mixer and started in. You know the part of the recipe where it says it will take 20 minutes of steady beating to turn into dough? Well, I mixed and mixed, and it never did. After 40 minutes, I gave up, and stuck the runny mess into the oven, after which it became a mass of gummy cardboard. I sent off an indignant email to Rose, never expecting to hear from her, but in less than a half hour, she sent me a kind email telling me that lots of people had trouble with this bread, but it really was fantastic if it worked. Only after my second failed attempt, when a clever blog reader noticed a picture showing me using the dough hook instead of the paddle attachment did I realize that the fault was not in Rose's recipe, or even in the stars, but in me and my apparent inability to read. <br />
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The bread works when you use the paddle attachment.<br />
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In fact, it's really fun to make because it goes from this....<br />
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To this.... Look at that gluten developing! You know it's going to work now.<br />
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To this....<br />
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This dough is so aesthetically pleasing, and so wonderfully tactile. At some points you almost think it doesn't even matter how it turns out, because it's so fun to work with.<br />
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The dough rose with gusto the first time (it was in my proofer at 78 degrees). The pan didn't fit in the proofer, so it rose - very slowly - in my cold kitchen for the second rise. After a while, I decided it had been out long enough and I would rely on oven spring for the rest.<br />
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I dimpled it, tore off fresh rosemary leaves, and sprinkled Maldon sea salt all over. Back in the day, I didn't have Maldon sea salt. Don't you sometimes marvel at all the food that you use routinely now and had never heard of 20 or 30 years ago? Maldon sea salt is one; actually, focaccia is another. Probably some of you young people never had to undergo a life without focaccia, but I did. And I also walked 5 miles to school.<br />
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It took a little, but not much, longer than 13 minutes to reach a stage of golden brownness. I wish I'd thought to poach the garlic and do that variation because it's delicious. I also wish I'd used a bit more rosemary because it dried and shrunk in the oven.<br />
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Otherwise, I have no complaints. As I look through the cookbook, I can't believe that I made every bread in the book in just one year. But I'm glad we're going at a slower rate this time.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15187362927261194164noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-90139455331733375522013-01-30T13:45:00.001-06:002013-01-30T13:45:58.125-06:00Tartine Walnut Bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is my favorite Tartine bread so far, and, even though it requires the extra step of toasting the walnuts (and I added the step of scrubbing off the bitter walnut skins), it seemed the easiest. First, I finally decided to cut the recipe in half. Although it's still a lot of time invested for one loaf of bread, it's also easier not to bake one loaf, clean the pan, and bake another. Second, I simplified the process by making my own abbreviated list of steps:<br />
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[Night before: make fresh leaven]<br />
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1. Mix dough<br />
2. Rest<br />
3. Add salt and water.<br />
4. First rise:<br />
3+ hours<br />
4+ turns<br />
5. First shaping<br />
6. Bench rest<br />
7. Final shaping<br />
8. Line basket with flour mix.<br />
9. Final rise<br />
10. Preheat oven and pan<br />
11. Put dough in hot pan<br />
12. Score<br />
13. Bake with lid<br />
14. Bake without lid<br />
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I'd read through the walnut bread recipe once, and was actually able to make the bread by referring only to this list. The only thing I couldn't remember was the oven temp, so I had to check that. Otherwise, I just went by memory. I forgot that the water was supposed to be heated to 80 degrees, and I also forgot how long the bread was supposed to bake with and without the lid (but I checked that when I checked the oven temp, so I guess I forgot two things, but I only had to check one time).<br />
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I've also decided to use my KitchenAid with its dough hook instead of mixing the dough by hand, as Robertson tells you to do. Yeah, I know that if I were a true bread baker, I'd want to touch the dough, but I get enough touching by turning it every half hour. (This time I turned it every half hour for between 4 and 5 hours, instead of the bare minimum 3 that Robertson instructs. I think that's the main reason that I was almost completely satisfied with this version).<br />
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See? I'm touching it like crazy. It actually is very satisfying tactilely: soft and smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom. <br />
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Bread that doesn't get done until dinnertime becomes dinner. With sliced apples and pears, cheese, and walnuts in the bread, it's a pretty completely meal, although high in fat, I suppose. But I'm pretty sure that the same people who are now telling us that coffee and wine are healthy are also sanguine about "good fat," which would include walnuts (although not cheese, I guess). But maybe that message will come next year. Oh, and by the way, if the people who announce that cheese is good for you would also mention that the best weight for someone past their prime is about 20 pounds more than when they were 18, I'd be pretty happy.<br />
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This is the last Breadbasketcase post I'll do for a while--maybe forever, depending on whether this break turns out to be just a hiatus or the end of this blog. I've been doing this since December 25, 2005, my first post, so it's been just over 7 years. I don't even want to count how many loaves of bread I've made, but it's been a lot. <br />
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More important than the bread I've made are the people I've met (or at least we've met in cyberspace, if not in the real world), including the wonderful Rose Levy Beranbaum herself. I'll also miss working with my ace photographer, who has gone through at least three cameras in the course of Breadbasketcase. We'll have to come up with another joint project, like sailing the world.<br />
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I have no interest in giving up on bread, but I find myself wanting to return to bread I've made before, and wanting to devise my own recipes. I've tried not to repeat recipes on this blog, although I know there have been a few that I've made again without even remembering that I'd made them before. And trying to perfect a new recipe is probably not something that would make for entertaining reading. But if I ever do come up with the best bread I've made, you'll read about it here.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-40219454652108881372012-12-23T14:54:00.001-06:002012-12-23T14:54:28.362-06:00Tartine Semolina Bread<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUsT3Ip1u_JiH_O9OAxpaq3QTvgYDRKq4rxdFF8cOyz2b1gtA_uibzdmK_L0weqqPmz07ThU3N_UXC5QTv82VZ9yb0gOIV9Y-oh4VijyxkwxveuHZvflZchnnDQnPnYU6qI7A/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+17.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUsT3Ip1u_JiH_O9OAxpaq3QTvgYDRKq4rxdFF8cOyz2b1gtA_uibzdmK_L0weqqPmz07ThU3N_UXC5QTv82VZ9yb0gOIV9Y-oh4VijyxkwxveuHZvflZchnnDQnPnYU6qI7A/s640/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+17.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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I made this just a week after my first Tartine bread, and am only just now finding a few minutes to write about it. This bread was not as astounding as the first Tartine effort (although still quite good), and, looking at the pictures, I think I can spot several reasons why.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9Z2Z-Z7S9n_aQjdSBcQXg35n4KWjovkZMSYdzpnUg9XHBkq5VKQ4cAo2KPFvanCwzFmvgigfEo61JxVfoI5p8XIDMW4mfTXWOtd2_glfZA_QkR6orcoZVpgqHWuvh3oWlfOb/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9Z2Z-Z7S9n_aQjdSBcQXg35n4KWjovkZMSYdzpnUg9XHBkq5VKQ4cAo2KPFvanCwzFmvgigfEo61JxVfoI5p8XIDMW4mfTXWOtd2_glfZA_QkR6orcoZVpgqHWuvh3oWlfOb/s400/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+01.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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First, the semolina flour was coarser than I would have liked. The Semolina Bread recipe does call for semolina flour - not surprisingly - but I remembered too late that Rose's semolina recipes all specify durum flour: made from semolina, but lighter and finer. I think that would have been better.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzgCs7_jI1AzoZp3ZV0VSvs7SqcilhePHe9tBmr49VZZrtotFfzZYsceWssJRLtpkYqRDf5OgaVHYVM1nDCwq59q9bW6zaJx6MoAw9hptKGFOTEuEM8VN8iv2cFOZ4TqDz7uW/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGzgCs7_jI1AzoZp3ZV0VSvs7SqcilhePHe9tBmr49VZZrtotFfzZYsceWssJRLtpkYqRDf5OgaVHYVM1nDCwq59q9bW6zaJx6MoAw9hptKGFOTEuEM8VN8iv2cFOZ4TqDz7uW/s400/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+03.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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Second, although this bread method does give you large spans of unattended time, you really have to think through the timing, and you can't just run off mid-bread. The initial rise requires "folding," which is this bread's kneading equivalent, every half hour. And Robertson says you can't rush this period. Unfortunately for me, I gradually realized that I was going to have to rush it a little because I was going to be gone from the house for a few hours mid-afternoon. Going through the timing in my head, I concluded that I was either going to have to end Phase 2 after just 3 hours (the minimum time), or I would end up putting the bread in the oven at midnight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4m7hTuR08pFlqp9EQptn2RHh1tGcw4flnb9JegT49VOpwulNJA5CeeJ5jUdghxO06yA6WTobRejqXeM5oAhCaPoKFiV7bH4Ixc2yTVMOgmcSnPQGkAl2HoGN0HTmCHB5XCX8f/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4m7hTuR08pFlqp9EQptn2RHh1tGcw4flnb9JegT49VOpwulNJA5CeeJ5jUdghxO06yA6WTobRejqXeM5oAhCaPoKFiV7bH4Ixc2yTVMOgmcSnPQGkAl2HoGN0HTmCHB5XCX8f/s400/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+02.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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And, although I was surprised to see that my starter was very exuberant (after the first bread, I started keeping it in the refrigerator and feeding it only weekly or as needed for bread), three hours still wasn't long enough for the first rise. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpIewhEBRczUU3T9K0vTqvxT9NipNKQIoFuLZzrP04AMURYLLDCHZ142g-cLZOv203bBpilNK1pRe5oehkBAlEuy-uUdLgFPXdWSEv99Hzkz6-PyyTVTip7AgAC_prLmXXJna2/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+08.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpIewhEBRczUU3T9K0vTqvxT9NipNKQIoFuLZzrP04AMURYLLDCHZ142g-cLZOv203bBpilNK1pRe5oehkBAlEuy-uUdLgFPXdWSEv99Hzkz6-PyyTVTip7AgAC_prLmXXJna2/s640/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+08.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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Third, I opted to use a mixture of sesame and poppy seeds only on top of the bread, while the recipe calls for those seeds, as well as fennel seeds, in the bread as well as atop the loaves. I like fennel, but I didn't want two loaves of fennel bread--it's just too limiting. <br />
Only as I write this does it occur to me that I could cut the recipe in half. Duh. I often double recipes, but I so rarely halve them that I just didn't think about it. Making only one loaf at a time will also decrease the time spent on the bread. Anyway, I think the bread would have been more flavorful if I'd incorporated some seeds into the dough, especially since most of the topping seeds fell off.<br />
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Finally, the step where you plop the bread dough into a burning hot pan didn't go well this time. With both loaves, the dough didn't settle neatly into the pan, resulting in an uneven loaf. Well, I suppose this isn't serious, but you'd like the bread to be beautiful rather than misshapen. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUi-HzQdrcDrDYWXn0AC0VfeYqxWRHRWf6Zzt63TxLrEIcozUTc2hM1B9wqMFWDuNmlLzyfLQyHd4ogYL5ywFGqIlZHoKNHANZNgM2wasgZVuznvHJyUB9Gchtp83P1woNhvL/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+20.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUi-HzQdrcDrDYWXn0AC0VfeYqxWRHRWf6Zzt63TxLrEIcozUTc2hM1B9wqMFWDuNmlLzyfLQyHd4ogYL5ywFGqIlZHoKNHANZNgM2wasgZVuznvHJyUB9Gchtp83P1woNhvL/s640/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+20.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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Jim, bless his heart, was trying to take pictures that didn't reveal that one side of the bread was an inch taller than the other side, and one side had a little ledge where it stuck to the side of the pan. But you can see the objectionable shape in this photo.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRxgm2g6Dv4X2JHbHvJvHwxuKDEVPoX8Oba_pF6GsHDz25DvDFE1uYadn2bBhOBmepwO3bLNta0c0f_B8HJm6W1cOA8CuPCnW-Vy0waxFfBM1fBa6qFH6kFgMPZMVarxB-jJ0/s1600/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRxgm2g6Dv4X2JHbHvJvHwxuKDEVPoX8Oba_pF6GsHDz25DvDFE1uYadn2bBhOBmepwO3bLNta0c0f_B8HJm6W1cOA8CuPCnW-Vy0waxFfBM1fBa6qFH6kFgMPZMVarxB-jJ0/s400/11-30-12+Second+Tartine+Bread+14.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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You can also see it in this picture, which shows that the texture of this bread is not as good as in the first loaf. I think this is because I had to rush the first step. (And remember that by "rush," I mean that it only sat around for 3 hours.)<br />
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Am I discouraged? I am not. But I am looking for a day where I have nothing to do but to check the progress of the dough in the first rise. A lazy sort of day. A don't-rush-me sort of day. I hope I'll have one of those in January. Which sounds like a fine resolution to make, and one that's more keepable than my standard "eat less, exercise more" vow.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-64552409606792650672012-11-11T20:04:00.000-06:002012-11-11T20:16:38.058-06:00Tartine Bread: Bread at Last!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdffZN9_vkpbjx2GVvAVMAapzHA66hgWnizYMZIej_t0UjmJ3X665Gg2jLDxmWFA01AFN43BThh977cJR_JivRLIIkdqhe9sxXPP6TCagcNKvuIysgp_ws0TV2QnEq_9U63Da/s1600/11-10-12+Tartine+Bread+60.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIdffZN9_vkpbjx2GVvAVMAapzHA66hgWnizYMZIej_t0UjmJ3X665Gg2jLDxmWFA01AFN43BThh977cJR_JivRLIIkdqhe9sxXPP6TCagcNKvuIysgp_ws0TV2QnEq_9U63Da/s400/11-10-12+Tartine+Bread+60.JPG" /></a></div>
This is a really wonderful bread, and actually not all that difficult, but it does require you to go through over 30 pages of instructions, including photographs. But, as with so many recipes, once you've done it, you see that it's not nearly as hard as you thought it would be.
It starts the night before you bake, when, curiously (to me anyway), you dump out all the carefully cultivated starter except for one tablespoon. That's not even enough to cover the bottom of the bowl. I always thought the rule of thumb for starters was to discard half, but the Tartine method is much more profligate. This is what I started with:
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Next, feed with water, whole wheat flour, and bread flour. This is the same thing as before, except this time we measure: 200 grams of water and 200 grams of flour. The test for whether the leaven is active? See if it floats in water. (Isn't this the test they used for deciding whether you were a witch? If you floated, you were a witch. If you sank, you weren't. Unfortunately, you were dead. But righteously so).
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My leaven floated. Hooray! I love to do well on tests.
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The leaven, flours (mostly white with a little bit of whole wheat) and water are mixed together. The Tartine way is to mix it with your hands. I think that Chad Robertson must have loved playing with clay when he was a kid, because he thinks you should get dough on your hands on any possible occasion. I used my KitchenAid to mix the dough, but this was the only time my sturdy mixer got even a bit of a workout. This bread isn't kneaded, as you'll see; it's only folded.
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But wait! After I mixed it in the KitchenAid, I realized that the next step was to add the salt and a little more water, and - of course - mix it by hand. This time I decided to be a good sport about it.
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Next step: into a big bowl. Preferably clear plastic or glass, but I used my regular earthenware bowl. Instead of being kneaded, the dough is folded at half-hour intervals for the upwards of four hours that it undergoes its first rise, or "bulk fermentation."
It was a chilly day in Minnesota, and the dough should be at a "constant temperature between 78 and 82." My kitchen will not be 82 degrees anytime after August. But luckily for me, I have my trusty <a href="http://brodandtaylor.com/">folding bread proofer</a>.
I set the proofer for 81 degrees. Otherwise, it would have taken all day for the dough to get to its next stage.
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It's not easy to determine when the dough has finished its first rise. It doesn't rise that much, so the more usual test of checking to see when the dough has doubled in size is of no help. Instead, you have to look for more subtle clues. Has the dough started to get "billowy, soft, and aerated with gas?" Do more "air bubbles form along the sides of the container?" Are you realizing that if you don't move on, you'll be fooling around with this bread dough at midnight? (That last test is not in the book.)
I moved on after four hours and twenty minutes. I think the dough was more billowy, but I'm honestly not sure.
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Next, divide the dough (the standard recipe for Basic Country Bread makes two loaves), and shape each one into a round. Let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. In bread lingo, this is known as a "bench rest."
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The dough is then shaped again, using a series of folds. Then it rests again (Bench rest #2?)
Next step: make a 50-50 mix of <a href="http://www.bobsredmill.com/white-rice-flour.html">rice flour</a> and wheat flour.
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Why rice flour? Well, I'm assuming that it has superior non-stick properties, since we're obviously not dealing with a gluten-free product here. This mix is used to dust the towels that line the baskets or bowls in which the dough makes its last fermentation, or "final rise." This takes another three to four hours at warm room temperature. Or, if you're tired of playing around with the dough, you can put the baskets in the refrigerator, which slows the fermentation, and deal with it tomorrow. "After 8 to 12 hours [in the refrigerator], the dough will develop more complex and mildly acidic flavors." I decided just to forge ahead.
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I stacked the two baskets in the dough proofer, and moved them from top to bottom every hour or so. At last--some nine or ten hours after I started in the morning, I was finally ready to bake a loaf of bread.
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I don't have a good picture of this part of the process because it's hard to see the dough against the inside of the Dutch oven, which has been preheated to 500 degrees. Then the dough is turned into the very hot pot, and you slash a square onto the top of the dough. You are aware that the pot is very hot, and it would be quite easy to burn your arm, but, amazingly, that doesn't happen.
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After 20 minutes in the oven (now turned to 450), the lid is removed, and you see a blonde, shiny loaf. Not ready, but looking better than you thought it would look.
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After another 20 minutes of baking with the lid of the Dutch oven off, out comes a perfectly respectable looking loaf of bread.
I will now admit that in my years of baking bread, including a number of "sourdough" loaves, I have never before had the courage to trust entirely in wild yeast. Even with my sourdough recipes, I've always added at least a pinch of yeast because I never really believed that the so-called "natural" yeast that's supposed to be floating around in the air would really do the trick. Why chew willow bark when you can buy aspirin? That was my theory.
But here's my willow-bark, natural-yeast bread, and it looks pretty good.
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Not only that, but it tastes pretty good too. It actually tastes better than pretty good. The crust is maybe the crustiest I've ever achieved, and it was done without misting, ice cubes, boiling water, or any of the other ways I've tried to get that burst of steam. Full of holes, flavorful, chewy, it's the kind of bread that makes you realize that a diet of bread and water wouldn't necessarily be a punishment.
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And this is only the first, most basic loaf of bread! I could still make an olive loaf, or a walnut loaf, or even croissants! Not to mention the last half of the book, which consists of recipes using bread (bread salad, for example, or "Nettle Fritatine"). Well, I may never make it to the nettles.
I'm glad to have this blog, which kept me honest. If I hadn't blogged my progress (very slow progress), I probably would have given up on Day 3 or 4. But I'm glad I stuck with it, and, if you have a couple of weeks without much to do and a willingness to throw a lot of flour down the disposal, I encourage you to do the same.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-87844540029468724352012-11-08T19:27:00.004-06:002012-11-08T19:27:53.836-06:00Tartine Bread: Day 10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think it's Day 10, although I'm no longer completely sure. At any rate, the proto-leaven actually seems to be turning into a real leaven, and there is a discernible rise-and-fall routine to it now. I'm going to give it a few more days, and then it's time to try a loaf of bread this weekend!
That will be a long process, with, I hope, a lot of illustrative photos. I especially hope for a good result.
Here is yet another factoid about sourdough. It is estimated that only about 1% of yeasts have been identified.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast"></a>
Questions: How the heck do they know that? And who is doing the identifying? And are people actually on the lookout for more? Like elements?
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-47574269610680655802012-11-03T21:11:00.003-05:002012-11-03T21:11:29.244-05:00Tartine Bread: Days 5, 6 and 7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The starter is definitely in the fermenting stage, but is not yet "rising and falling in a predictable manner." In fact, it's not really rising and falling at all. That seems to be because the "balance of yeast and bacteria" is not yet firmly established.
Did you know that the mascot of the San Francisco 49'ers is "Sourdough Sam"? I didn't.
Did you know that "sauerteig" means "sourdough" in German? I don't think I knew that, but it's not really a surprise.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-11436635004116630342012-10-30T10:17:00.000-05:002012-10-30T10:17:10.317-05:00Tartine Bread: Days 3 and 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After another day, the mixture is less brown and more bubbly. Both of these traits are satisfying, since the brownness really did not look appetizing. The bubbliness assured me that things were working as they should be.
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This picture was taken after I stirred up the goop. It felt satisfyingly thick and full of activity.
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This is the part that bothers my thrifty (sometimes) soul. You have to dump out almost all of the active goop, and add more flour and water. By the time I'm ready to make bread, I figure I'll have thrown away about 10 pounds of flour.
Since there's very little actual bread-making activity going on around here, perhaps you'd like some random information about sourdough. (Robertson doesn't like to call it sourdough because he doesn't like sour bread, and bread made with "sourdough starter" doesn't have to taste sour. He just calls it a starter, or a "leaven.") If you want to Frenchify it, you could call it "levain."
It's not really yeastless. The starter works because it captures wild yeast that's floating around in the air. Everywhere. Yes, in your house too.
Rumor has it that you can speed up the sourdough process by spitting into the mixture. I swear that I didn't do that.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-16214679873409301922012-10-29T11:31:00.002-05:002012-10-29T11:31:23.457-05:00Tartine Bread: Day 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nothing much has happened on day 2, except the color is browning and unappetizing. At this point, I guess you take it on faith.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-42259483019648508562012-10-28T18:43:00.001-05:002012-10-28T19:09:54.827-05:00Tartine Bread: Day 1I have not been quite as lazy as the time between posts might lead you to suspect. I have made breads, but they've all been repeats of breads that I've already written about. Also, my younger daughter gave birth in August to my first grandchild, and Jim and I are taking care of him until his coveted slot in infant daycare opens up. Meanwhile, I've been staring at this book cover, telling myself I really should start this bread:
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It's been nearly two years since I got Tartine Bread for Christmas. In the intervening months, I've started reading it probably a few dozen times, and always felt rather dispirited about the time and effort it was going to take to get going with the bread. Every time I read the first chapter, about Chad Robertson's quest for the perfect bread, I'm amazed at how much time and energy he spent looking for ways to blend the most mundane ingredients--flour, salt, and water--into a thing of beauty.
He traveled from Northern California to Provence to the French Alps to Bourdeaux back to the northern California countryside, and finally to San Francisco, where he opened his now-famed bakery. His book, he says, is a "baking guidebook to get you where you want to go." I'm not sure where I want to go, but I've now taken the first step."
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My first step is mixing a goop made of bread flour, whole wheat flour, and water. And there it will stay for a few more days until bubbles form around the sides and on the surface. We'll see.
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-87487354070269381102012-07-08T17:42:00.000-05:002012-07-08T17:42:58.378-05:00Russian Black Bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been about three months since I've posted on this blog, and several of you were nice enough to check in with me to ask if I was feeling all right. In my defense, I went on a 3-week trip to Russia, Estonia, and Finland in May and June. Then I went on a road trip to South Dakota (Mount Rushmore! Herds of buffalo! The Corn Palace!) for a week. But I've been back for a while, and I figured I'd better post something before my excuses started to molder.
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Because I ate so much good black bread in Russia and the other nearby countries, I wanted to try my hand at making some. I assumed that the black color would come from pumpernickel flour. But, at least in <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/04/black-bread/">this recipe</a>, from Smitten Kitchen, it comes from molasses, chocolate, and espresso powder. I have no idea how authentic this bread is. Smitten says her husband is Russian, and her mother-in-law is a good Russian cook, but this recipe is from <i>The Bread Bible</i>, by Beth Hunsberger. How can there be two cookbooks called <i>The Bread Bible</i>? Doesn't the name of the cookbook get copyrighted? I'm going to research that one day, but not today.
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Authentic or not, Russian or not, this recipe makes a fine bread. It's not hard to make, but it does have the drawback of calling for about 32 ingredients. I exaggerate, of course, but not by much. And, unless you bake a lot of bread, there are ingredients you're not likely to have on hand. White and whole wheat flour, yes, but rye flour? Bran? Espresso powder? Maybe not. I actually had everything in my pantry or freezer except for shallots. My advice is not to omit the shallots--although I don't recall eating any bread in Russia that had that onion-y taste, I liked it a lot. By the way, although you could taste the shallots, the chocolate and espresso weren't obvious flavors in the finished product, although I think they added some depth.
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Hmmm. It looks a little nasty, doesn't it? I mixed it using the flat beater, and then switched to the dough hook, but it's a heavy dough, and it required a little hand kneading. (This is one of those breads that could be made pretty easily without a stand mixer, and it would be good exercise for your upper arms, for sure!
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The recipe makes two good-sized loaves. I made one in a loaf pan, and the other into a boule.
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What did I do with these two loaves? They were the solid base for a Russian dinner party. I cut the loaf in thin slices and used them as the base for some
Russian appetizers: spread thickly with unsalted butter and sprinkled with caviar, onions, and hard-boiled eggs (yum); spread thickly with cream cheese and chives and topped with smoked salmon (yum); and topped with pickled herring (blech). We had shots of vodka straight from the freezer, of course. HŠ° Š·Š“Š¾ŃŠ¾Š²ŃŠµ!!
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The other loaf went along with dinner: chicken shashliki with traditional tomato sauce, beet salad with yogurt and dill dressing, and butter-steamed potatoes (also known as molodaya kartoshka v masle). For dessert, I made strawberries Romanoff (not truly Russian, but a good dessert anyway.)
I also want to try Estonian black bread and Finnish black bread. But maybe I'll wait a bit for those. Hopefully it won't be another three months.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-72684090112111112102012-04-07T12:44:00.000-05:002012-04-07T12:44:45.587-05:00Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96RAi2xI03xEb20VWrcbdVbss3Yat91yaUJSJHJ9Z61nI481zKJWVDmUvTcysPvQkYKd_SVe_CHWx_J6fsQBHMif_rPUfdj6CmZ2O14zjUVidVHYJFTVKchYCL6ViGsmmzpPO/s1600/03-24-12+Bread+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96RAi2xI03xEb20VWrcbdVbss3Yat91yaUJSJHJ9Z61nI481zKJWVDmUvTcysPvQkYKd_SVe_CHWx_J6fsQBHMif_rPUfdj6CmZ2O14zjUVidVHYJFTVKchYCL6ViGsmmzpPO/s400/03-24-12+Bread+14.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
I saw a handsome loaf of oatmeal bread at <a href="http://www.sunstreetbreads.com/">Sun Street Breads</a>, one of the best bakeries in Minnneapolis. I almost bought a loaf, and then I remembered that I was supposed to be a bread baker, and I hadn't baked a loaf of bread in a long time. I had some buttermilk, left over from another project, in the refrigerator, so I decided it would be an oatmeal buttermilk bread.<br />
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A nice thing about baking yeast bread with buttermilk is that you can just substitute it ounce-for-ounce for milk, and you'll get a similar, but slightly tangier, result. (Things are trickier when you try to substitute it for milk in a quick bread--you have to decrease the baking powder and increase (or add) baking soda).<br />
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As I was making this bread, and marveling over how the oatmeal changed from big rough flakes to a porridge-like consistency after just a brief soak in water, I wondered why I'd never made oatmeal before. But the search function on my blog showed me that I had--twice, in fact.<br />
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The <a href="http://breadbasketcase.blogspot.com/2007/12/oatmeal-bread.html">first time</a> I made it, back in 2007, I was inspired by Rose's mention of Jeffrey Hamelman's oatmeal bread, which she made for her father. I couldn't find Hamelman's recipe, so I made a different version, which gave me no end of trouble. I ended up with a sadly misshapen loaf, and complained bitterly about the ends, which looked like, I said, giant belly buttons. Then, a few months later, I made <a href="http://breadbasketcase.blogspot.com/2008/01/golden-honey-oat-bread.html">a different version</a> that Rose had on her blog--one with honey and flaxseed. I was pleased with that one. <br />
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Now, five years later, I own the Jeffrey Hamelman book, <i>Bread</i>, that has the recipe Rose used for her father's birthday, and which inspired me in the first place. The up side of having an increasingly faulty memory is that so many things come as surprises! If I'd remembered this whole series of events when I first got Hamelman's book, I probably would have just made the oatmeal bread then (without buttermilk, since his recipe calls for sweet milk), and I wouldn't have been so delighted to find out that I'd finally made the bread I was trying to make way back when. Now I'm not only happy with the bread, I'm happy to discover that it's apparently been on my to-do list for five years.<br />
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I can see why Rose's father liked this bread so much. It's very likeable. Excellent as a sandwich bread, it really shines as toast. So much so that my groan when my alarm clock goes off at 6:00 soon turned to a smile, and I jumped out of bed: toast for breakfast! Yay!<br />
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<b>Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread</b><br />
adapted from <i>Bread</i>, by Jeffrey Hamelman.<br />
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1 lb, 10 oz. bread flour<br />
6 oz. whole-wheat flour<br />
5.3 oz. rolled oats<br />
2 cups water<br />
1 cup buttermilk<br />
2.4 oz. (3T) honey<br />
2.4 oz. (5 1/2 T)canola oil<br />
.7 oz (3 1/2 tsp.) salt<br />
.18 oz. (1 1/2 tsp) instant dry yeast<br />
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Place the oats in a mixing bowl. Add the water, and let stand for 15 or 20 minutes to soften. Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Using a dough hook, mix on low speed for 3 minutes until thoroughly mixed. Turn the mixer to medium-low and mix for another 3 to 5 minutes.<br />
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Let rise for one hour. Fold the dough once during this rising, using a letter-style fold.<br />
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Divide the dough in half and shape into loaf pans. Brush the tops of the bread lightly with water, and press oatmeal gently onto the tops of the loaves. Cover the loaves, and let rise for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours.<br />
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees, using a pizza stone if possible, and preheating the stone as well. Put 1/2 cup ice cubes on a preheated tray or pan in the oven, and put the loaves on the stone (or on the oven rack). After 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 400 degrees. Bake 30 to 40 minutes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-59274039225750456852012-02-20T12:13:00.000-06:002012-02-20T12:13:07.972-06:00Za'atar Flatbread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKULoN2Msq2mDe6iRYaApOE1NwXg7YUWI5DDLw6BZpZvxxhQUJyPLcj-pJMG7qn0nVAAk4a62KrtAnSTd3mB8lWZkSCH-SErWvlf9RGMx78H73mqWRLMBl7VRpwln_iIs7E6IV/s1600/02-13-12+Zatar+08.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKULoN2Msq2mDe6iRYaApOE1NwXg7YUWI5DDLw6BZpZvxxhQUJyPLcj-pJMG7qn0nVAAk4a62KrtAnSTd3mB8lWZkSCH-SErWvlf9RGMx78H73mqWRLMBl7VRpwln_iIs7E6IV/s400/02-13-12+Zatar+08.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
I wasn't going to blog about this bread because it's embarrassingly easy to make, as long as you have the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za'atar">za'atar</a> (or zatar--or, for that matter, zaatar, zatr, zattr, zahatar, zaktar or satar).<br />
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If you have the spice mixture, however you want to spell it, you can make a close approximation of the bread just by buying pita or other flatbread, brushing it with olive oil, sprinkling the za'atar mixture on top, and baking it for 5 minutes or so. I got my mixture at Penzey's, but it's also available at a number of on-line sources. (When I was at our local Penzey's store, I remembered that I wanted this spice, but I couldn't remember what it was called. I asked if they had any Qatar. The nice man at Penazey's didn't say, "You moron, that's a country, not a spice." Instead, he kindly led me to the za'atar and said, "I think this is what you want." The Penzey's mixture has thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt, but other mixtures may also contain oregano, mint, marjoram, or savory. There are <a href="http://www.chow.com/recipes/28291-franciscos-manaaeesh-flatbread-with-zaatar">many recipes available via the internet</a>, the source of all knowledge. <br />
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I simply used the <a href="http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/2010/02/09/back-to-basics-tips-and-techniques-to-create-a-great-loaf-in-5-minutes-a-day">master recipe</a> in <i>Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day</i>, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I halved the recipe, and used about two-thirds of that to make the flatbread. (The other third is being made today into a mini-boule that will be sliced and used to top some onion soup).<br />
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The dough is spread out flat, punched with your fingers, and doused with olive oil. Then you liberally sprinkle on the za'atar mixture and a little more salt (there is already some salt in the za'atar, so you want to be careful not to overdo the added salt).<br />
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I baked it for about 25 minutes at 425 in a convection oven, cut it into small wedges, and served it with hummus. Now za'atar is my new favorite taste sensation. It's salty, a little sour, herbal, and nutty. <i>Artisan Bread in Five</i> suggests using it in a kabob marinade or in fattoush--both sound great for summer cooking. Alas, summer is not yet here, but I hope the zatar will keep for a few more months.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-80762745490146995892012-02-07T20:33:00.000-06:002012-02-07T20:33:12.352-06:00Cranberry Pecan Boule - and a Surprise Present<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq4eG1w_OeKHTJ9St5f4JQqKOe79F0nF0qeCZXyKREzkzIXoDDgX2f5Tjtua1P2pVcI7UILslKMB7L6N6QCSkS1zOZ8HmmqN-BZhEoE-0UJybDpygT6fm4Au2Z2oexjIE2YgL0/s1600/02-05-12+Bread+26.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq4eG1w_OeKHTJ9St5f4JQqKOe79F0nF0qeCZXyKREzkzIXoDDgX2f5Tjtua1P2pVcI7UILslKMB7L6N6QCSkS1zOZ8HmmqN-BZhEoE-0UJybDpygT6fm4Au2Z2oexjIE2YgL0/s400/02-05-12+Bread+26.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
I made strict rules this past Christmas about buying presents for me. Not because I don't think I deserve them--no, not at all. It was because I had already picked out a whole boatload of things that I wanted. (To be perfectly honest, I'd already bought them and just gave them to Jim to wrap). But there's a limit to how many geegaws you can buy for yourself, and I had exceeded the limit. So I told Jim, no more! But three days before Christmas, a large box appeared in the mail, addressed to me. I opened it - it was addressed to me, after all, and found this:<br />
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It's a <a href="http://brodandtaylor.com/about-us/">BrĆød &Taylor Folding Proofer</a>. "Jim," I said, "you were not supposed to buy me anything else." He claimed he didn't. I didn't believe him. He swore that he didn't. I asked him who else would buy me a bread proofer. "Maybe it was <a href="http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/">Rose</a>," he guessed. "That's crazy," I told him. But then I remembered that I had read <a href="http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2011/10/the_proof_is_in_the_proofer.html">something on Rose's blog</a> about a proofer. So I called Woody and asked him if he'd ever heard of a bread proofer. "Oh, did you get yours? I just got mine too," he said cheerfully. Mystery solved. Thanks, Rose. And thanks, BrĆød &Taylor, too.<br />
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The proofer came with two recipes: country wheat sandwich bread and cranberry pecan boule. I voted for cranberry pecan. Since nobody else voted, I won. It starts with a poolish starter, which sits in the proofer for 4 hours at 74 degrees. I loved it that it was 74, and not 75. <br />
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Usually a poolish sits in my chilly kitchen overnight. In the summer, it ferments for a few hours in my warm kitchen and then overnight in the refrigerator. It's all very casual, which I like. But I also like knowing that I can end up with a bubbly poolish in just 4 hours at 74 degrees. If I get very brave sometime, I may try it at 75, or even 76 if I'm feeling very devil-may-care.<br />
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It's a very stiff dough. I kneaded it for almost 10 minutes in my new KitchenAid and had visions of watching another mixer go kaput. But it chugged along (it is still under warranty, so I don't really expect it to go under until 24 hours after the warranty expires).<br />
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The dried cranberries and chopped pecans seemed to have an antisocial personality disorder. They did not want to mix. (If you make this bread, I recommend that you spend more time than I did poking cranberries back into the dough--the berries on the outside of the bread were burned and inedible, while the berries that had been forced inside were tart-sweet and delicious.<br />
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Into an oiled bowl and back into the proofer it goes. This time the proofer goes up to 80. When I thought about it, I realized that my kitchen is almost never 80 degrees. (I do have a proofing setting in my oven, but it's 85 degrees, which is the high end of ideal temperatures for proofing).<br />
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After this proofing, the dough gets shaped into a ball, and put in a bowl or colander. I used a lightly floured banneton. Then it rises again - at 80 degrees exactly - for another hour.<br />
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After 25 minutes in the oven. You can see how black the cranberries got. But it's still a handsome loaf of bread. And delicious, too.<br />
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But wait, there's more! This little machine is not only a proofer, it also makes yogurt and melts and tempers chocolate. Or so it says. I may very well try it for yogurt, but I'm not sure I'd drag it out to melt chocolate. Although, in fairness, "dragging it out" is not a big ordeal. It folds into a small rectangle, so it doesn't take much space, and it's easy to put together. This gadget definitely belongs in the "luxury" category, not the "essentials." But I'm tickled to have it, and wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be something I convince myself I could no longer do without. Especially in winter, when dough sometimes is as reluctant to rise as I am to go outside.<br />
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<b>Cranberry Pecan Boule</b><br />
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Poolish Starter:<br />
3/4 cup (4.4 oz.) unbleached bread flour<br />
1/2 cup water (4.4 oz.) (70 to 78 degrees)<br />
1/4 tsp instant yeast<br />
Set the proofer to 74 degrees and add 1/4 cup of water to the wawter tray. Mix all the ingredients for the poolish into a large mixing bowl. Place the bowl into the proofer for 4 hours until it inflates into a bubbly, soft, and sweet-smelling sponge.<br />
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Dough Ingredients:<br />
All of poolish starter<br />
1 cup (8.1 oz.) water<br />
1 tsp. instant yeast<br />
2 1/4 cups (10 oz.) unbleached bread flour<br />
3/4 cup (3.6 oz) whole wheat flour<br />
2 tsp. salt<br />
1/2 cup dried cranberriese<br />
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped<br />
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1. Increase proofer temperature to 80 degrees.<br />
2. Add the water to the poolish and stir it around to loosen it up. Add the yeast, flours,and salt. Stir until a rough dough forms. Knead dough on counter or in stand mixer, using the dough hook, until a smooth and elastic dough forms.<br />
3. Add the cranberries and pecans and work them into the dough until they are evenly distributed throughout.<br />
4. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and place in proofer. Let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes or until it has doubled in bulk.<br />
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and shape the dough into a tight round ball.<br />
6. Place the dough ball seam side up into a well-floured dough rising basket or a bowl/colander lined with a heavily floured linen cloth. Dust the exposed bottom of the loaf with flour and place back inproofer, still set at 80 degrees. Let the dough rise 1 hour or until it has almost doubled inj bulk.<br />
7. Prepare the oven for baking an hour before you are ready to bake. Place a bakingh stone in the middle of the oven with a skillet or rimmed baking sheet on the bottom rack. Preheat to 500.<br />
8. Turn the dough out onto a baking peel or inverted baking sheet lined with parchment. Score the top of the loaf and quickly place the loaf onto the hot baking stone. Add 1/2 cup of water to the skillet and close the door. Bake for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 450, and continue to bake foro 25-30 minutes or until the loaf is a deep brown color and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.<br />
9. Allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing.<br />
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From BrĆød &Taylor Folding Proofer Supplemental Manual, crediting Melissa Langenback, thebakersguide.com.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-85099389361512901002012-01-09T20:04:00.000-06:002012-01-09T20:04:57.364-06:00Cream Cheese Cinnamon Buns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjna89ZOgBf80rHf_xciWSE1fOwGpbDcKx4TdaeFr_xUOzU0Ud2BZMwV9tDVmr4Y6PIO5zi4dEEQtulzB1HjI6-7x4z9le3tjRMgz04jXBlQJPa_RahAmFrSJXtaEvRfctgobaN/s1600/01-06-12+Bread+33.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjna89ZOgBf80rHf_xciWSE1fOwGpbDcKx4TdaeFr_xUOzU0Ud2BZMwV9tDVmr4Y6PIO5zi4dEEQtulzB1HjI6-7x4z9le3tjRMgz04jXBlQJPa_RahAmFrSJXtaEvRfctgobaN/s400/01-06-12+Bread+33.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
This is the 15th year we've invited people in our neighborhood to casual coffee-and-doughnut hours on Saturday mornings in January. We have pots of coffee, juices for the little ones, and platters of doughnuts. I usually make something homemade in addition to the doughnuts, and last Saturday it was <a href="http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-cheese-cinnamon-buns-recipe#ReviewSection">these cinnamon rolls</a>, courtesy of King Arthur's web site.<br />
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The cream cheese isn't added to the dough, and it's not in the frosting. Instead, it's layered on the rolled-out dough (letting it soften at room temperature for at least two hours is an excellent idea).<br />
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Then it's folded, business-letter style, and rolled out again. This process is repeated again until the cream cheese is more or less absorbed into the dough. (I thought it could have used another turn because I could still see a layer of cream cheese, but I was afraid it would toughen the dough).<br />
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Here comes the filling. Either something called <a href="http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/bakers-cinnamon-filling-24-oz">Baker's Cinnamon Filling</a>, which King Arthur will be happy to sell you, or your own mixture of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. (The Baker's Cinnamon Filling has shortening instead of butter). I used butter. Finally, sprinkle both chopped walnuts AND pecans over the filling, and roll 'er up.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFgrJTDf5VIQe42zqTrYnznCfjj6xQnNNfX03worTkO7tS4E1EFBQTKtQUs31bcLUGbPhx1PM4vl-AsQUe7QsCyzkFpbfxaKW0o6Sz0Ni9qIedHtreOw6gTRPZonaZPsKvd-7/s1600/01-06-12+Bread+16.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFgrJTDf5VIQe42zqTrYnznCfjj6xQnNNfX03worTkO7tS4E1EFBQTKtQUs31bcLUGbPhx1PM4vl-AsQUe7QsCyzkFpbfxaKW0o6Sz0Ni9qIedHtreOw6gTRPZonaZPsKvd-7/s400/01-06-12+Bread+16.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
The recipe is supposed to make nine rolls, which you place in a 9" x 9" baking dish. I put nine in an 8" x 10" pan, which, if my math skills are at all accurate, is almost exactly the same area. I don't think it gave them enough room to expand properly because they looked a little squinched when they came out of the oven.<br />
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I still had three left over, and I put those in a little round casserole. <br />
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A basic powdered sugar/milk glaze is not really very exciting, but it added just the right touch of sweetness. Despite all the brown sugar in the filling, the rolls were not very sweet, and needed just a touch of the frosting that can sometimes be cloyingly sweet. Just a drizzle is enough.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAuhUoOcNyJwR8w0TCWoQwk6_U4fizFkRn17CIH8ykcOBv8M0i0-7sTTmi_yuDwVhO1ueyH8E5jJSIwtmdyFbO-V05Ha4PDoDBTERtQ-rydi97O6L6WcwMHkkECZJysbidbAc/s1600/01-06-12+Bread+29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAuhUoOcNyJwR8w0TCWoQwk6_U4fizFkRn17CIH8ykcOBv8M0i0-7sTTmi_yuDwVhO1ueyH8E5jJSIwtmdyFbO-V05Ha4PDoDBTERtQ-rydi97O6L6WcwMHkkECZJysbidbAc/s400/01-06-12+Bread+29.JPG" /></a></div><br />
The rolls were still just the slightest bit doughy in the middle, meaning they should have either had more room to spread or I could have baked them just two minutes more. The most heavenly part about these rolls is the crusty corners, which are flaky and tender at the same time. With the nuts, extravagant amounts of butter and cream cheese, and brown sugar, these are like the best parts of both sticky buns and cinnamon buns, rolled (literally) into one delicious treat. And the nice thing is that you can make them at night and simply take them out of the refrigerator, let them warm up a bit, and bake them in the morning. When guests open your front door, they'll be hit with the welcoming scent of cinnamon rolls. They'll be your slaves.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-18480234994626079252012-01-01T17:05:00.069-06:002012-01-01T20:24:21.477-06:00Rustic Dinner Rolls - and a New Year's Eve Dinner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVbjWEpGvm9xlB3UH8Ud4WkvNwrEY5tnxeN9arWR8Nv8gKW1TjOIZWJ-Y56cuIYLllItrn2-x3b1QQeovWlORjYjigNMaST86-Bns6hmDIxSYznS-18lMxzuHhLLiMAZfnWho/s1600/12-31-11+Bread+29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVbjWEpGvm9xlB3UH8Ud4WkvNwrEY5tnxeN9arWR8Nv8gKW1TjOIZWJ-Y56cuIYLllItrn2-x3b1QQeovWlORjYjigNMaST86-Bns6hmDIxSYznS-18lMxzuHhLLiMAZfnWho/s400/12-31-11+Bread+29.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
I've started watching America's Test Kitchen, and I'm fascinated by its best-recipe, try-it-again approach to cooking. It's fascinating to me because it's the opposite of the way I cook. Once I finish a recipe, I don't think about how to make it better; I think about what I'm going to try next. This is pretty obviously not the superior method since it means I never perfect anything. But I do get a lot of variety.<br />
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Because I was assigned the salad course (more on that later) for our annual progressive New Year's Eve party, I wanted to make a bread or roll that would be a good accompaniment. I'd seen one of the cooks on ATK work her little heart out on these rolls, so I figured they'd be just the thing. I also liked that they were made with a wet dough that, unlike Norm's Onion Rolls, would not burn out the motor of my new KitchenAid. <br />
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The rolls, titled <a href="http://http//www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=17651&_auth_token=aJwACbu%2bUiQD91bQB4CaWtbBVacM1lxVaIVVnsTStHvme2ZRHv1EPpcGbozsPaOD%2fLFejbLlu6f2nAAsFKEREy38WUXUuTViC3R6uD9wGPkoYs95GAEH%2b0ezv%2bpidcNu%2b5uozv5fhx8vxCG0P3ASmFWM0z0VK1cnyquDQ64LskDifO1QswL4RNUGDuG%2b4xri">Rustic Dinner Rolls</a>, are pretty straightforward, although they do have some typical ATK quirks, born of their obsessive testing and re-testing.<br />
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For example: 3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour, no more no less. This is supposedly just the right amount to get a "nice earthiness." If I were an obsessive tester myself, I'd try again with no WW flour and once again with a half-cup. They had a good flavor, though, so maybe there's no point to further experimentation.<br />
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The biggest quirk of this roll recipe is starting them out in round cake pans, so they grow together in their first ten minutes of baking.<br />
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Then, lightly browned, they come out of the oven and get turned over on a baking sheet, until they're cook enough to be separated. This initial baking is done at 500 degrees, to increase the amount of oven spring. Then another 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees.<br />
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To my surprise, because of the trust I place in ATK, mine didn't spring very high. They actually look a lot like the photo that shows what happenes to a roll when you don't give it that burst of intense heat: they're flat and hockey-pucky, not tall and springy. In ATK's defense, I think this may have happened because I ran out of bread flour after measuring out about a third of the flour. (How does it happen that a bread blogger runs out of bread flour?)<br />
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Because these rolls were almost perfect, I'll admit that I'd kind of like to try them again, using all bread flour this time. But I already have a full list of breads to try for the first time, so I don't know when, if ever, I'll return to the rustic dinner rolls made with three tablespoons of whole wheat flour. <br />
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Some readers, who have been reading this blog for years (people, don't you have anything better to do with your time?), may remember that our New Year's Eve tradition is to have a neighborhood progressive dinner. When Jim remembers, he photographs the courses. I think he's only remembered <a href="http:///breadbasketcase.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html">once</a>. <br />
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This dinner started out at the Niemiecs' house for appetizers. Appetizers are my downfall (I probably should say one if my many downfalls). I love having a little savory bite, or, let's face it, a lot of largish savory bites. Joan made a platter of crisp vegetables,<br />
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smoked salmon with onions and capers,<br />
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and spinach balls.<br />
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Then we moved to the soup house, which belongs to the Beiers. Master soup-maker Betty B. made leek and mushroom soup topped with brie toasts.<br />
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The third course was at our house. In addition to the rustic rolls, I made a fennel, watercress, and blood orange salad with champagne vinaigrette.<br />
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The piece-de-resistance was Beef Wellington, by Laurel Deloria, who has never found a recipe she's afraid to tackle.<br />
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She was also not afraid to tackle a Madeira sauce (delicious).<br />
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The Papanicolaous thoughtfully provided bowls of beautiful vegetables, so that we could delude ourselves into thinking we were eating healthily. (There was also an unpictured bowl of green beans).<br />
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Jim got a new timer for his camera so that he could take a picture of the whole group, including himself. However, he neglected to read the directions, and he never did get it to work, so he finally gave up and took a picture of everyone but Jim.<br />
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Unfortunately, he was so flummoxed by this photography failure that he completely forgot to take a picture of the dessert prepared by Doug Logeland: lemon tart with chocolate crust. Too bad, because it was a memorable finale to a great dinner.<br />
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And a happy new year to you all!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-10859359210479117802011-12-05T21:23:00.000-06:002011-12-05T21:23:35.054-06:00Norm's Onion Rolls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4JsLR7nwGg_7y03wkNgLm9OZAdQhhfFAg3Zee9nw2u0v-FrEkS7byqjSaNlzhRWd-qcWKRUxmF6QyUGsXcYkAdFDhazVa9u54sMP_NBg242ThmTW-WYQybputbXqwlJMc2_L/s1600/IMG_0476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4JsLR7nwGg_7y03wkNgLm9OZAdQhhfFAg3Zee9nw2u0v-FrEkS7byqjSaNlzhRWd-qcWKRUxmF6QyUGsXcYkAdFDhazVa9u54sMP_NBg242ThmTW-WYQybputbXqwlJMc2_L/s400/IMG_0476.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
My friend and (sometime) fellow blogger, <a href="http://hadtheradish.com/">Chris from Rhode Island</a>, recently asked me if I knew about <a href="http://www.thefreshloaf.com/">The Fresh Loaf</a>.<br />
Well, in fact, I do know about it, but Chris's note reminded me that I hadn't visited the site for many months. So visit it I did, and came away with this recipe for <a href="http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/normsonionrolls">Norm's Onion Rolls</a>.<br />
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People on The Fresh Loaf raved about Norm's Onion Rolls. And I'm going to rave about them too, but I will say that Norm could write clearer recipes. And if I were a good and responsible blogger, I would make these several more times, and I would edit the recipe until it was understandable. But I'm not good and responsible, so I will link to the recipe as is, and if you make them, you'll probably have the same questions I did, but since mine came out just fine, I'll bet yours will too.<br />
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This makes a <b>very</b> thick dough. In fact, my trusty KitchenAid stopped dead in its tracks. I quickly turned it off, hoping that it would recover. I haven't re-tested it yet.<br />
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Oh, this is bad. After I wrote that sentence, I decided I couldn't keep myself in the dark about whether I had a working stand mixer. So I went to my kitchen to try it out. It's not working well. Now I've put Jim in charge of seeing if he can use his duct tape method of repair to fix it right up. Otherwise I might have to tell him that he'll be getting a new Kitchenaid for Christmas. (I already have my presents picked out, so I'm afraid it will have to go on his list. That's what happens when you're slow to make your list).<br />
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But before you get to the dough-rising stage, you have made the onion mixture. Oddly, you don't want to use real onions. Instead, you buy a jar of dehydrated onions, which you would probably normally not consider using in real food. At least this is what Norm recommends, and so it's what I did. You soak the dried onions for a while, then drain them, reserving the onion-soaking water for the bread dough.<br />
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Then you divide the dough into 3-oz. or 4-oz. balls, depending on how big you want your rolls. Mine were in the neighborhood of 4 ounces, and I got 13 rolls. At this point, the recipe got a little unclear. You make mini boules, and, at some point, you let the dough rest again. I couldn't tell whether Norm wanted me to let the dough rest before shaping it into boules, or after, or at what point he thought I should cover the dough with the onion-poppy seed mixture. I shaped them first and let them rest for 20 minutes or so. <br />
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Also, the recipe says to use your thumb to make a dimple on top of the rolls. I thought that meant I should put the filling inside the dimple. But I think I was supposed to flatten the dough while pressing the roll into the onion mixture and then make the dimple. I now believe that the dimple actually has no utilitarian value (such as serving as a nest for the onions)--it's just the way it is. But I could be wrong. Perhaps if someone who is familiar with these New York-style rolls reads this, they can give me some advice, preferably not beginning with, "Breadbasketcase, don't you know how to read?"<br />
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This is what they looked like going into the oven:<br />
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And this is what they looked like coming out:<br />
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These are not ladylike rolls. Even if you made them smaller, there's something very hefty and satisfying about them. If I had flattened them more, and pressed the onion mixture into the top of them, they would have been perfect for sandwiches. But as long as I didn't wonder how they compared to Norm's rolls, which have reached a nearly mythic stature among readers of The Fresh Loaf, I liked them exactly as they were--round, savory, and toothsome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-35521005845319293352011-10-16T19:19:00.000-05:002011-10-16T19:19:37.007-05:00Grape Focaccia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRZQ4rHF-Px7VRQBmAXIW-cs8TFQ4el7y0umySbY90GO1bz2dFosZ3-S2KtHBjKWZV1tWZrEMVnOAioT3yucbb2_NzV0k9R6rOyBFSVcwtjzQHlSwoJtMcQbaqVMo3tAEcgcN/s1600/10-14-11+Weekend+Viands+26.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRZQ4rHF-Px7VRQBmAXIW-cs8TFQ4el7y0umySbY90GO1bz2dFosZ3-S2KtHBjKWZV1tWZrEMVnOAioT3yucbb2_NzV0k9R6rOyBFSVcwtjzQHlSwoJtMcQbaqVMo3tAEcgcN/s400/10-14-11+Weekend+Viands+26.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
Time sure flies when you're not baking bread. I could not believe the last date on a blog entry--it couldn't possibly have been nearly two months since I made the Pan Cubano! And this bread had been on my radar ever since I saw <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/dining/grape-focaccia-recipe.html">the recipe in the New York Times on September 28, 2011. </a>I picked some wild grapes in anticipation of baking this focaccia from a friend's vacation house, but they withered away in the refrigerator. Then I picked some Concord grapes from the same neighbor's city yard, and they too wrinkled and dried. Finally, I bought some red grapes from the grocery and made the bread the same day.<br />
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Really, there's no excuse not to. You're likely to have almost everything you need on hand: olive oil, yeast, flour, cornmeal, and sugar. You may, if you're lucky, have pine nuts in your freezer and fresh rosemary in your herb garden. If not, pick them up when you buy your grapes (or snitch your neighbor's grapes, if you're more organized than I am and you pilfer them at the appropriate time).<br />
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First, you gently heat some fresh rosemary in 72 grams (about 6 tablespoons) of olive oil. If you absolutely have to, you could use dried rosemary, but it won't be the same. <br />
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Then you simply mix everything but the toppings in a mixing bowl and knead for about five minutes, using the dough hook. Feel free to knead by hand if it makes you happy, but it's easier to knead this wet dough with a hook. You can take it out of the bowl and do the last minute or so of kneading by hand, making sure that you don't add too much flour.<br />
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Let it double in size. If you use all the yeast (two teaspoons) and let it rise in a warm place, it takes only about an hour. You can decrease the yeast and let it rise longer, or even let it rise twice. You'll get more flavor from the dough with less yeast and longer rising times, but it doesn't matter much in this focaccia, which has a lot of strong flavors--not just the grapes and rosemary, but also the cornmeal and sugar add different elements not usually in a flatbread.<br />
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Shape into a rectangle. No need to measure--this is supposed to be rustic.<br />
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And make sure you've dimpled the dough! Don't actually make holes in the dough--you don't want to break the bottom layer. Then scatter on the grapes, pine nuts, the reserved rosemary, a little sugar (I used turbinado), and sea salt. Then drizzle with olive oil (don't be chintzy with the oil), and bake on a parchment-lined pan. Hopefully you've remembered to put a baking stone in the oven and to preheat the oven to 400.<br />
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This bread didn't match Rose's rosemary focaccia, the gold standard of focaccia-ness. It was quicker and easier, though, and had a nice sweet/savory balance. The cornmeal was a good addition, and the big grains of sugar and salt made a fascinating mouth crunch, giving out big hits of sweet and salty in the same bite. I started making the bread at 3:15, and took it out of the oven at 5:20, just minutes before people started arriving for a Friday afternoon TGIF gathering. Cheetos and beer for one half of the block; wine and grape focaccia for the other. Who says we can't all get along?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21995818.post-56617621199992952672011-08-23T20:07:00.000-05:002011-08-23T20:07:22.168-05:00Pan Cubano (Cuban Bread)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ngEefO_YTuYIyZj-heYkOk06VTndIoNRjEGa4cQC39WALd1ZnD1XQTio67RtQpRdtJE1yZz7NEmyQS_bnCcB7IxPcbyQLynfMr-euOmq8b1WGKZd8IePaA13eiRK9wR3Lip5/s1600/08-21-11+Bread+25.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ngEefO_YTuYIyZj-heYkOk06VTndIoNRjEGa4cQC39WALd1ZnD1XQTio67RtQpRdtJE1yZz7NEmyQS_bnCcB7IxPcbyQLynfMr-euOmq8b1WGKZd8IePaA13eiRK9wR3Lip5/s400/08-21-11+Bread+25.JPG" width="400px" /></a></div><br />
Although I definitely haven't committed to making bread from every country in the world (in fact, every time I think of it, it seems to be a crazier idea). But I've noticed that ever since my friend David suggested this as a project, I've been drawn to any recipe with <i>pan</i>, <i>pane</i>, <i>brood</i>, <i>pain</i>, or <i>brot</i> in it. Luckily, I don't know how to recognize the word for "bread" in Russian, Arabic, or a host of other languages, so I haven't gone crazy. So far.<br />
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There are a couple of things about this bread that are unique, at least to me. First, it's made with lard, instead of butter or oil. The word on the label is actually "lard," not "ard." I checked all the dozen or so containers of lard to look for one that didn't say "ard," but I searched in vain. Apparently Clancey's printer doesn't do <i>l</i>s. <br />
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When I read the recipe for <a href="http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/pan-cubano">Cuban bread</a> more closely, I saw that the recipe is actually for <i>pan de manteca</i> (lard bread) instead of <i>pan de agua</i> (water bread). Apparently <i>pan de agua</i> is more commonly sold in bakeries, but since I'd already bought the <i>manteca</i>, I was certainly going to use it.<br />
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Most of the 4 tablespoons of melted lard is mixed in the dough, but a bit is put on the top of the dough when it's put in a bowl to rise. <br />
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It's an enthusiastic riser, and takes only about an hour for it to double in size. Its second rise, done after it's shaped into loaves, is only 5 to 7 minutes--really a rest rather than a rise.<br />
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Unlike a ciabatta with poolish, say, this bread has no pre-ferment and short rising times, which makes it a good recipe to know about when you have a mid-afternoon urge to make bread and you want it for dinner.<br />
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Another thing that makes this bread unique is its decoration with bay leaves, tucked in the slashes. If you don't have bay leaves, you don't have to run out and buy a jar--they're not essential to the success of the bread. But if you have them, you might as well use them, especially if you suspect that they've been lolling around on your spice rack for years and it's probably time to replace them with leaves that smell like bay.<br />
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But the most unique thing about this recipe by far is that it starts in a cold, but steamy, oven. That's right--no preheating. Just a pan full of boiling water. For some reason, starting the bread in a cold oven makes it so steamy that the door is covered with condensation and you can't see in the oven. I'd love to know why the Cubans, unlike everyone else in the history of bread, decided to start theirs in a cold oven. Maybe this is just an eccentric recipe, but I'd rather think that there's a good story behind this method.<br />
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At some point in the afternoon, it occurred to me that if I had two loaves of Cuban bread, I should use at least one of them to make Cuban sandwiches. I sliced part of a loaf in half (sans the bay leaves), spread mustard on each half, and layered ham, roast pork, baby Swiss, and sliced dill pickles on the bottom half.<br />
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I was going to use my almost-never-used panini maker, but I read someplace that a true Cuban sandwich should never be made in a panini maker, so I put it on a griddle and weighed it down with a heavy pan. Then I put another heavy pan on top of the first one. Then I put my tea kettle on top of the second heavy pan. Definitely not authentic, but it worked, although I don't understand why the panini maker is <i>verboten</i>.<br />
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This sandwich was so good, and so easy to make--assuming you have all the necessary ingredients, it goes together in no time. It's an odd combination of ingredients, but it works. I like to picture the same Cuban grandmothers who decided to bake bread in a cold, steamy oven, also standing around arguing about what to put on the bread. I think that they couldn't agree, so they each just shouted out their favorite food: Mustard! Pork! Cheese! Then they stuffed it in their just-baked bread, heated it up, and ate it. They were in hog heaven. Or, as they say in Cuba (maybe), paraĆso de los cerdos.<br />
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