The Half Cup...

The BBB Buddies and where have I been & so quiet

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:48:19 -0400

First ... the buddies.

It is always great fun to discover who will bake with us. This month it was especially fun as I discovered some lovely new bakers ...

Find Nicole’s lovely golden star round loaf on her blog Bread Butter and Buns. She also shaped it in a loaf pan for toast Her loaf shaping in the pans is lovely; reminds me of how my dad shapes loaves. Such a perfect blog name for a baker.

A Messy Kitchen is actually a very beautifully run kitchen in Seattle by Kelly. Using a wok chopstick to indent gorgeous star loaves, Kelly also replaced part of the sugar with granulated coconut sugar to give it a hint of carmamely flavor

Veena’s blog is Veg Junction. Wonderful loaves Veena ... her daughter gave it a thumbs up.

Rita aka Soepkipje has her wonderful photo collage here. I surprised Rita this month. In an e-mail, she wrote “Wasn't expecting a WHITE bread (with much fat and sugar :-))” ?? but I used only 30 grams of sugar and added flax seed and whole wheat flour Rita ... and I was baking this for a friend.

Family & Food & Other Things I’m a bread not a muffin. Andrea has a fun story about her son taking this bread to school. Her buns make me realize this would make lovely rolls and buns.

The Culinary PH.D. put an Italian twist on the bread by adding orange zest and almonds and using vanilla almond milk. I’ve never seen vanilla almond milk so I’m wondering if it was soy milk? She used Fiori di Sicilia (Flowers of Sicily) an extract from King Arthur Flour. Even though she used only 50 grams of the brown sugar to make this bread, I’m betting that sugar and all these flavors made for a richly sweet bread.

AND

Natalia from her blog GATTI FILI E FARINA. Natalia baked a very lovely loaf. She said she was late but I told her she had time, plenty of time ... and the reason I told her she had plenty of time is because ...

We’re adding a second story to a house in the woods, 16 miles from the nearest internet connection.

So please forgive my quiet time here. I’m not really cooking but I’m doing a LOT of work.

You’ll hear from me when I’m home again.

BBB Sweet Portuguese Bread

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:15:30 -0400

With our new Babes joining, there’s been some talk/question about how do you pick a bread as Kitchen of the Month. There was one time I picked a bread “pin the tail on the donkey” style. I had three breads I thought would be excellent and couldn’t decide between them, so I “pinned the tail” on one. But that’s not the story with this bread.

Portugal, a small country with a very large heritage.
You most likely know this bread as Hawaiian Bread. That’s because the Portuguese were early explorers to Hawaii.
Most of you know I’m not really a sweet person, salty, spicy, savory is much more to my liking. So what am I doing with this sweet bread?

Why do I bake bread? I love to bake bread because I love finding something new and learning something new.
A new feel: remember that Crock.
A new drama: remember that Tortano.
A new pan: remember that Brioche Mousseline.
A bread that I didn’t know was bread: Chinese Flower Steam Buns.
A bread I’d NEVER take on voluntarily: remember Ethiopian Injera.
You get my idea.

Why do I bake bread? I bake bread for people because people love real bread. I have a wonderful Portuguese neighbor who grew up in the Azores in the 50s. As she told us about her mother one evening, she told us about this wonderful just sweet bread her mother used to make and how much she loved this bread. She still can get the bread but only once a year when she’s with her sister. So … I set out to replicate the bread for her.

I went through all my bread books looking for what she called Portuguese Sweet Bread. I found recipes in
• Advanced Bread & Pastry: A Professional Approach by Michel Suas pg 237
• The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger pg 368
• A Baker's Odyssey by Gregg Patent pg 221
• The Bread Book by Linda Collister & Anthony Blake pg 136

I found two recipes that looked likely. Very different recipes. One used 3 eggs and one used an overnight rise.
I tried the recipes from
Michel Suas: Advanced Bread & Pastry: a professional approach : page 237
And
Greg Patent: A Baker's Odyssey: Celebrating Time-Honored Recipes From America's Rich Immigrant Heritage : p 221

The recipe that I liked best and that my neighbor said came closest to her mother’s is what I give you here. It’s a mix of the above two but was perhaps most strongly influenced by Greg Patent’s. His is an incredible book with lots of stories and history with each recipe.

My neighbor’s favorite way to eat this is with a touch of really good unsalted butter. She liked it best with the 100 grams of brown sugar; 30 grams seemed beautiful to me. It makes amazing toast. I have the idea to one day bake this in a loaf pan and make French toast with it. But, that’s for another day because I’m going to ask you to take a rolling pin to this one. I'm in love with this technique. ** I found this “shaping” technique in the Michel Suas book. Although it is not the traditional shape for this bread, it works incredibly well and beautifully. If the indents fail, you end up succeeding with the traditional shape which is a round. Now how often can you said you’ve failed and still have perfect success?!

I hope you enjoy this and find it relaxing after our sprouting combat duty!

Keep in mind this requires an overnight sponge.

And in anticipation of your question:
osmotolerant yeast is "Osmotolerant yeast is a special strain of instant dry yeast that performs better in high-sugar doughs than other yeasts do. In small amounts, sugar enhances fermentation, but when the amount of sugar exceeds about 5% of the flour weight, it impedes fermentation by pulling water away from the yeast. (If you’re a science geek, you probably know that sugar creates osmotic pressure, and if you’re not, you probably don’t care.)" Straight off Susan's site. 

Sweet Portuguese Bread: Massa Sovada

Also known as Pão Doce & just Massa

Over night SPONGE
72 grams bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons osmotolerant yeast (instant worked just as well too)
114 milliliters potato water, or whey or water (potato water or whey really make it extra tender & soft)

DOUGH
6 tablespoons butter, room temp.
30 to 100 grams brown sugar
lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temp.
120 milliliters milk, room temp.
460 grams bread flour
(I use approximately 1 cup of whole wheat in place of an equal amount of bread flour, you can use all bread flour if you like)
2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground(optional)

Method:

Mix together the sponge the night before baking the bread. Leave sitting at room temp 8 to 12 hours (overnight).

When Sponge is ready:
Beat sugar and butter until creamy.
Add zest and salt and beat.
Beat in each egg separately and completely; mix will appear curdled.
Stir in milk and sponge.
Stir in 2 1/2 cups flour and beat vigorously (in a stand mixer it would clear the sides of the bowl, by hand lifting the spoon up should stretch the dough about a foot.)
Add remaining flour to make stiff dough. Knead 5 minutes or more to incorporate all the flour:
Dough should be smooth, soft and very supple with a slight stickiness. Looks a little like very thick cake batter or a brioche dough.
Shape into ball, oil bowl and dough ball.
Cover and allow to rise about 2 hours, should almost or triple in size.
Divide into loaves, shaped into balls.

Allow to rest 20 to 30 minutes before final shaping with rolling pin.

Use a skinny rolling pin or a 1 1/2 inch dowel for this.

Dust with flour fairly liberally as that will help maintain the indents.

This seems to me to be the simplest of shaping techniques.

Put the shaped dough onto parchment to rise and then slide onto a baking stone.

Or place into a pie pan

Or deep dish pizza pan

Shape and place into well oiled cake pans.

Allow to rise an hour to 2 hours; more than double in size.

Before placing in the oven brush with egg wash if you want that beautiful glossy finish.

Bake 350°
50 minutes as two loaves
35 minutes as four loaves
mine took less as four loaves

Brush with melted butter when hot from the oven. If you're really a sweetie, I suppose you might then dust this with sugar. Not me.

30 or 100 grams brown sugar or some amount in between the choice is yours. Whatever you do, I am very confident you will more than enjoy this.

Since I’m Kitchen of the month for this August, I you want to be a Buddy and earn a Buddy badge (oh it’s pretty this time) bake the bread and post it by 29 August, send me a link and your photo (my e-mail just at the bottom of this page on right side). I’ll have you in the Buddy round up shortly then.

Don’t forget ... we want you to help us pick our Anniversary Bread for February 2011. We’d like you to pull out all your bread books and recipes and suggest a bread for us to bake. That’s right, come about November, we’re going to ask you to mail us that recipe that you love the most or the recipe that scares you the most. More to come on that.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.
Thank you Susan!

Breakfast Fruit Bread for PaperChef And BreadBakingDay

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 14:31:01 -0400

What would you think of given dried dates, cranberries, candied orange peel and flour? That’s what the Paper Chef is asking you to create a dish with. Some how those ingredients did not scream dessert to me as they did to Alessio (who won last month’s PaperChef Challenge) at Recipe Taster. Can you possibly guess what I thought of? I thought BREAD. Did you guess that?

And then you know what I thought of? Booze of course. You don’t know? Booze because this month‘s theme for BreadBakingDay is Breads with Booze. This 33rd BreadBakingDay is hosted by Adriana author of the blog BakingPowders. Read all about BreadBakingDay started by Zorra HERE. And why would I think booze with PaperChef’s ingredients? Well how much more natural than to soak those dates and cranberries in some lovely rum! And then enjoy a tumbler myself

What is PaperChef you ask? I say it’s as close as I’ll ever get to iron chef. You can read all about it here.

I found an Italian bread called Panmarino in the Ultimate Bread book I have. The recipe didn’t call for dates, cranberries or orange peel but raisins. I thought the dates, cranberries and orange peel would translate well especially when soak in said rum ;-)

PaperChef
BreadBakingDay
Breakfast Fruit Bread

Adapted very loosely from recipe in Ultimate Bread
by
Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno

This recipe is based on a Florentine specialty that has been baked daily throughout Tuscany since the early 16th century. It is enriched with milk, olive oil and eggs; ingredients that reflect its origins.

100 grams dried cranberries
100 grams dried dates
rum to soak above fruits
1 tablespoon rosemary , chopped fine
30 grams candied orange peel
50 grams walnuts
2 teaspoons yeast
100 grams water
500 grams bread flour
3 tablespoons flax seed meal
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dry milk
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 large eggs, beaten

Whisk together 450 grams flour, salt, dry milk and yeast. Add rum soaked fruits and mix well with fingers to break up clumps; add in chopped candied orange peel and chopped walnuts and distribute evenly with other fruit. Everything should then be covered in flour.

Mix water, eggs and oil together.
Add liquid to center and mix to for soft, sticky dough.
Add remaining 50 grams flour - tablespoon at a time; then just dust hands with flour - if the dough is too moist.
Knead until the dough is silky, springy and elastic - maybe 8 minutes.

Place covered in oiled container and allow to double in size - oddly this took 3 hours.
CHAFING: forming a skin by rotating the dough ball between your hands: this recipe says 5 minutes.
Rest 10 minutes.

Divide into four pieces. (Recipe called for two loaves.)
Shape into balls, place on oiled baking sheets and cover. Allow to rise about 90 minutes to double in size. The loaf will look flat rises dramatically during the first 5 minutes with misting water in the oven.

Slash with an X or *.

PreHeat oven 400°
Bake for 35 minutes. Golden brown.

Serve with goat cheese mixed with a touch of lavender honey.
My notes:
400° seemed too hot for my oven, next time I’ll lower temperature to 380 or 375°
I should have used all of the 200 grams of dates and cranberries, I used only 100 grams.
The rosemary got lost in all the other flavors: either leave it out or use more.

With my morning coffee, this was spectacular!

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.
Thank you Susan!

Pane al Pomodoro: Tomato Bread

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:50:05 -0400

My favorite bread:
The one coming out of the oven = Pane al Pomodoro (Tomato Bread)
My favorite bread book:
The one I’m baking from today = Carol Field’s The Italian Baker

We both totally enjoyed this bread. It is going to make a glorious bacon and eggplant panini this afternoon! Great toast the last two mornings and WOW croutons in our salad last night.

Pane al Pomodoro: Tomato Bread
Recipe By: Carol Field: The Italian Baker
Yield: 1 loaf

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons onion, finely minced
2 teaspoons yeast, or 1 cake fresh 18grams
1 1/4 cups potato water, room temp.
1/2 cup sun-dried tomato , coarsely chopped; packed in oil
350 grams bread flour
150 grams whole wheat flour
30 grams flax seed meal
15 grams oil from sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt, scalded
1 egg white, beaten

Directions:

Saute garlic & onion in a light touch of oil. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together flax seed meal, yeast, flours, salt.

Mix together potato water, coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, 1 tablespoon of tomato oil, onions and garlic.

Mix and knead the dry ingredients together with the wet. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons additional flour as needed to create a "soft, velvety and slightly moist dough". 8 minutes
Slightly sticky but no dough sticking to my hands.

First Rise:
Cover; allow to double. About an hour.

Shape and Second Rise:
Knead lightly.
Shape into a ball.
Place on peel dusted with semolina, corn meal or flour.
Cover.
Allow to double taking about 45 to 50 minutes.

Bake:
Preheat oven to 425° at least 30 minutes.
Slash loaf - 3 parallel slashes suggested in the book, I did 3 side to side.
Brush with egg white.
Bake 10 minutes, misting 3 times during the first 5 to 7 minutes.
Turn oven down to 375° and bake 30 minutes longer.
Cool on rack.

Notes:

Between the potato water and the whole wheat, the bread was more dense than it probably should have been.
Next time:
reduce whole wheat flour to 100 grams and add 50 grams of AP flour
use 1/2 cup potato water + 3/4 cup water

Now, probably you realize I’m fickle don’t you? Well, I am. Tomorrow my favorite bread hasn’t come out of the oven and my choice of recipe hasn’t determined my favorite bread book YET. Tomorrow will come and it will be different but for today ... these two will do every so nicely.

Andrea at Family & Food & OtherThings is the hostess this month for BreadBakingDay #32
Bread Baking Day was created by
Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte. Read about Bread Baking Day and access the previous roundups on her blog.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.
Thank you Susan!

Syrian Walnut-Semolina Cake with Figs & Chocolate

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:12:58 -0400

I broke all my rules. I had this for breakfast this morning ... with yogurt with just a touch of honey ... that made it healthy right. Yes, I sacrificed again for you the reader ... I found it much too sweet for me so I imagine many would find this lovely. Sugar is such an interesting flavor/taste. I don’t dislike sugar but I think I’m happiest with just a gentle hint of it.

This is an excellent little cake but very unusual. It’s dry yet it’s moist. The dry is more the sensation of it crumbles under the fork and on the tongue rather than actually lacking moisture. The texture is not what I usually expect, it’s grainy not smooth but mate it with some ice cream or yogurt and lavender honey and you have a wonderful little bite of sweetness.

Syrian Walnut-Semolina Cake with Figs and Chocolate

Adapted by Soma - who found Chirs Hanna’s recipe in Food and Wine Magazine

170.82 grams walnut, halves
125 grams semolina flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, softened
114.96 grams honey
50 grams sugar
3 large egg, room temp.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
76.64 grams dried black Mission figs, finely chopped
76.64 grams chocolate chips
yogurt w honey or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. I used two 6-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of the pan with wax paper and butter the paper. Flour the pan, tapping out the excess.

Spread the walnut halves in a pie plate and toast them in the oven for 9 minutes, until fragrant. Let them cool completely.

In a food processor, process the walnuts with the semolina flour until finely ground. Add the baking powder and salt and process until incorporated.

In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the honey and sugar at medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Add the vanilla extract. At low speed, beat in the semolina flour mixture. Add the chopped figs and chocolate chips and beat at low speed until evenly distributed or fold them in with a spoon.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan (I used the two pans) and bake the cake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the wax paper and invert the cake onto a large serving plate. Cut the cake into wedges and serve with the vanilla ice cream.

Make Ahead
The cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

My Notes:

My semolina 1 cup weighted 157 grams. When I make it again I’ll use the 125 grams the MacGourmet conversion amount gave me. I think this might change the dry/graininess effect of the more semolina that I measured. A finer semolina grind might also smooth the texture. The walnut, honey and sugar metric amounts above that I used are from MacGourmet. I will probably reduce the sugar to 30 or 35 from the 50 called for in the recipe.

I’d like to see if I can reduce just a little of the graininess of the semolina not eliminate it because I feel it is integral to the character of this very excellent cake.

BBB Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Berry Bread

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:06:37 -0400

First ... the news.

We have Buddy news.

We have Babe news.

First, the Buddy news. We’d like you to put your thinking caps on pull out all your bread books and recipes and no not pick our next bread ... we want you to pick our Anniversary Bread for February 2011. That’s right, come about November, we’re going to ask you to mail us the recipe that you love the most or the recipe that scares you the most. We’ll have more details on how this will work as we get closer to the time.

Second, the Babe news. Our intent has always been to stay small. But our goal has also always been to have some critical number that kept us all stimulated and involved and was also enough to keep you interested. Anybody who’s blogged very long realizes that all of us from time to time have to focus all of our energy and emotion on our family and job; blogging has to take a back burner. Right now a number of the BBBs find themselves in just that place. Nobody is being replaced. But ...

We invited four more to join us as Babes ...

***Blog from our Kitchen (Elizabeth)
***Feeding My Enthusiasms (Pat)
***PaulChens FoodBlog (Astrid)
***WildYeast (Susan)
You’ll find them on the side bar. This has been a wicked wicked recipe to invite them to but we all came up with bread ...

Whee such a long winded chain of news before we get to the really important Stuff ... the bread. You’ve heard of and baked flourless chocolate cake, Lynn as in CookieBakerLynn decided we were ready for flourless bread, not gluten-free just made without any flour of any kind. Here’s the way she introduced us to this flourless bread:
We are the mighty Babes. In the kitchen, we are invincible. We can bake without gluten, we can bake without yeast. Can we bake without flour? Yes!

In July we're going to tackle making bread straight from the grain. Sprouted Wheat Bread. It makes me feel a bit like a hippie, but I'm excited to try it. This recipe is from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. I've included directions for using a food processor. If you need different directions, let me know.
Now, perhaps one could argue that “flourless” is a technicality because in some manner of speaking some would say that we’re making the “flour” when we grind the soaked sprouts in the food processor. Certainly, this is not your traditional bread made with what we think of as “flour”.

UP FRONT: CRITICAL INFORMATION POINTS ON THIS BREAD ...
• “sprout” in this case is just the tip end bud beginning, you do not want a tail of any length and you do not want any green things. I had sprouts (white heads I called them) in 12 hours.
• the first soaking, taking about 12 hours, is to soften the wheat berries and is the major source of the liquid in this bread. The only other liquid in the recipe is 2 tablespoons of water to dissolve the yeast.
• no special equipment is needed to sprout the berries. I used a nine by fifteen glass casserole to soak, rinse, drain and sprout.
• this recipe is written for using a food processor.
• while your initial response to this recipe maybe fear, I assure you the steps are simple and it will probably take less time than you think.
• and this is really amazing great tasting bread.

Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread
- from Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book

makes 1 loaf

575 grams King Arthur hard red wheat berries equaling about 6 cups sprouted
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoon filtered water (30 ml)
2 teaspoon salt (11 g)
3 tablespoon honey (45 ml)

To sprout the wheat:

Rinse the grain and cover with tepid water, letting it stand 12 to 18 hours at room temperature. Allow the longer period in cooler weather, the shorter period in warm.

Drain off the liquid: my glass casserole with it’s plastic top proved perfect for draining off the water.
Rinse the grains with fresh, filtered room temperature water and store in a dark place with a damp cloth over the top of the container. Rinse at least every 12 hours, just until the tiny sprout is barely beginning to show and the grain itself is tender - about 48 hours (mine took only about 16 hours), then refrigerate until they are cool, overnight or longer, but not more than a day or two.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. I mixed the honey and salt to simplify adding to the food processor bowl.

Put the regular cutting blade into a standard-size food processor and measure just over 2 cups of the sprouted wheat, a third of the total, into the bowl. Pour about 2 tsp of the dissolved yeast liquid, a scant Tbsp of honey, and about 2/3 tsp of salt over the wheat in the bowl. To protect the yeast, use separate measuring spoons for each of the ingredients.

Process until the ground wheat forms a ball, about one minute. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and process about two more minutes. Stop processing before the ball completely falls apart; if your wheat is not exceptionally high in protein a minute and a half might be all it can handle. If it falls apart, check the time, and with the next two batches, stop a little sooner.

Repeat with the remaining two-thirds of the ingredients, in two batches. Knead the three dough balls together.

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about 1/2 inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step.

Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more as before. If the dough is cold, the first rise will be fairly slow, but as the dough warms up, the rising will telescope.

Gently knead into a round. Use water on your hands to prevent sticking, and keep the ball as smooth as possible.
I used no flour with this. Water worked perfectly on my hands and the counter top to prevent any sticking.
Let it rest until it regains its suppleness while you grease a standard 8 x 4-inch loaf pan, pie tin, or a cookie sheet.

Deflate the dough and shape into a loaf. Place the dough into the greased loaf pan and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until the dough slowly returns a gently made fingerprint.

Bake about an hour at 350 deg. F, though if your bread rises very high, it will take less than that. Several Babes said they got a little oven spring, I never felt like I got any.

Maytag Blue Cheese is a perfect topping. My first loaf sank in the top and had a gummy center. Still made fabulous toast. I sort of thought the toasting was the second bake to correct the gummy part.

My second loaf I ran a bit longer in the processor and had a little finer grain. Truly, I enjoyed this bread tremendously: No Fat, Whole Grain, totally healthy but doesn’t taste like health food.

If you haven’t already, check out Lynn’s site if you’d like to become a Bread Baking Buddy. I know many of you will be frightened off by this recipe but it’s actually a very good bread and turns out not to be so difficult as you might think. I already have sprouts waiting to bake again for my third loaf of this.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.
Thank you Susan!

BBB Korni Bread

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:59:03 -0400

This has been a VERY loud month. Maybe you’ve missed it in your neck of the woods but the Babes this month, geeze louise, what a cacophony! I’m not sure where or who started it but there’s been plenty. I’ve had Babes jumping on my bed, one Babe singing in the rain in her bed!! and Babes BAM BAM BAMMING a head on my wall waking me up early one morning after a very sleepless night and that leaves out all the other wahooing going on in the back row.

BUT, I’m hear to tell you this is one extremely easy to make and fantastic bread that our Kitchen of the Month, Lien from NotitieVanLien brought us this month. I baked it three times with the recipe and once from a secondary recipe using a sour dough starter.

Two things about this bread really intrigue me.

ONE:

The recipe is from The Village Baker which was published in 1993 and has been out of print for years. 1993 is still reasonably fresh in my memory - my husband was still working, we had one son starting a business and another in high school. But, 1993 was probably somewhere at the dawning of the artisan bread baking craze. For whatever reason, when I first started baking bread in the late 1970s, the recipes always called for 1 package of yeast equaling about 2.5 teaspoons. Today, I can’t imagine making any bread with that much yeast. I’ve wondered if that was done because somebody (cookbook writers, bakers ??) thought that I needed extra yeast to guarantee a rise or was it just for speed. This recipe called for a package of yeast in the overnight poolish using 1 cup rye flour, 1 cup whole wheat and 1.5 cups white flour ... that really gave me pause. My kitchen is warm. Even though I really never proof my yeast any more and I use room temperature liquid or even cold, yeast seems to always be happy to grow - hold your breath now, I hope I haven’t just put a hex on my next 25 teaspoons of yeast ... So I determined to cut it to 1 maybe 1.5 teaspoons. Since Lien had success with the 1.5, I went with the 1. It was all that was needed in my kitchen. Your kitchen maybe different.

This makes me realize times and cookbooks do change.

TWO:

The first step in the recipe has you soaking organic soy beans in boiling water for 10 minutes, draining them and allowing them to cool. Finally the beans are chopped in a food processor. I was under the impression that soy beans took a looooong time to cook, so it seemed to me this would result in an uncooked really hard bean. I wanted to try it. No organic soy beans to be found at either of my go to specialty stores. All I could find were “soy nuts” because the store guy made it sound like the above was how they made soy nuts, that’s what I used. The soy nuts are what you see as the page background here. They worked and were wonderful!

Korni Bread
"The Village Baker" by Joe Ortiz)
(makes 1 round 3 1/2 pound loaf)

Korni means corn or grain. It is made from a combination of grains that go well together for flavor, crunchiness, and good nutrition.

Soy bean nuts
1/2 cup organic soy nuts

Poolish
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water (2 1/4 cup = 533 g)
1 cup organic rye flour (100 g)
1 cup organic whole wheat flour (130 g)
1 1/2 cups organic unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour (180 g)

Dough
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
All of the starter from the previous step
3 cups organic, unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour (420 g)
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 tablespoons ground caraway seeds*
1/4 cup organic fax seeds (37 g)
1/2 cup organic millet (100 g)
All of the soy mixture

Glaze: 1 whole egg whisked with 1 tablespoon milk

Prepare the soy beans:

I used my Molcajete to roughly grind the soy nuts. I didn’t use my food processor because it’s really loud and every time I made this bread it was really early and Gorn was still sleeping ... and because I just enjoy the feel and the history of the Molcajete. Hope you understand.

Then I used the Molcajete to roughly grind the 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds. I did not grind these to a powder as suggested by the recipe. I love caraway and the second time and from then on I made the bread with 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds.

Prepare the sponge/poolish:
Whisk the yeast, rye flour, whole wheat flour and white flour together. Mix in 1 1/2 cups cool water stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon.
Set the batter aside, in a large bowl, covered with a shower cap, for between 8 and 10 hours or overnight.

Make the dough:
Start adding the flour with 1 teaspoon yeast to the above risen sponge, handful by handful, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. After all of the flour has been added (this will take about 5 minutes with the kitchen aide), add the salt, flax seeds, millet and the ground caraway over the dough, and incorporate them by kneading the dough for about 5 minutes while adding any flour you may have held back. The dough should be very moist. Rather than add additional flour I used water to moisten my hands and kept the dough from sticking too much too them.

Set the dough aside, covered, to rise for 1 1/2 hour, until it has doubled in size.

Mine never took an hour and a half, it varied between 60 to 70 minutes.

Flatten out the dough again and then shape it into a round loaf. This loaf is best proofed in a canvas-lined basket and then baked on a baking stone in the oven. It can also be placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Let the loaf rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

With only two people in a house a 3.5 pound loaf of bread is tooooo much. I divided the dough in half. I baked loaves in the oval bannetons, in a regular loaf pan and in the round banneton.

It was prettiest in the round banneton - especially when I remembered to glaze it with the egg milk mixture!

I like the loaf pan shape best for sandwiches and toast.

But as you can see I enjoyed this bread in any shape in many “dressings”.

One of my oval banneton loaves stuck the worst ever basically ripping the top of the loaf off ... the others were lovely.

Important for beautiful color finish: Glaze the loaf with the egg and milk mixture and bake it in a preheated 425°F oven for between 30 and 35 minutes. All of mine took more like 40 minutes.

There is also a recipe for Sourdough Korni Bread in the book. I made that too.

I thought perhaps my starter was a little weak ... I was wrong.

Super strong would be more like it.

I added no additional yeast!

I had looked for this out of print book for years and finally found it with a second hand seller on Amazon in 2006. Let’s just say, I’ve never paid more for a cook book ... probably more than I’ve paid for any book including some of the medical text books I’ve bought. So, I’ve had the book four years ... and this is the first recipe I’ve baked from it. It was worth the price.

Aren’t familiar with High Five: I did it! ?
Check out Lynn’s site HERE.

The buddy posting date is and will always be the 29th of the month ... have to think about leap years ;0)
Check out Lien’s site for details and to send your bread info to. Wow! check out those new digs Lien’s got!!

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.
Thank you Susan!

I really love the way Natashya talks about the Babes and the way she explains how we’ve set a schedule. So, I ask her if I could just copy it. She said yes:

The Bread Baking Babes are a lot of things - raucous, lively, sexy.. flour-covered wine-soaked chicks who live to bake... but you can add organized to our list of attributes - we now have an actual schedule for Babes Bread posting and bake-along Buddies posting.
No more waiting with bated breath, scanning the internet to see what's next - you can rest assured that the Babes will be posting the Bread of the Month on the 16th of every month and that the bake-along Buddies will have a deadline of the 29th of each month. See? Organized.

Pizzeria

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:59:33 -0400

Who’s hot? What’s hot?

Several days ago, I made up a recipe of Peter Reinhart’s Pizza dough from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I first did this dough for a Daring Baker Challenge in October 2008. It has become THE pizza dough in this house. You’ll find the recipe at the above Daring Baker link.

I play with it a lot which is reasonable because it makes enough dough for six pizzas that would feed 12 people. We’re a house of only two almost all the time. Luckily it’s a recipe that makes up ahead of time and then is good for at least three days; I have stretched it to four and it’s still better than anything else.

How do I “play around” with this dough? Ever since I started cooking from Dorie Greenspans’s Baking from My House to Yours, I’ve felt much freer to “play around” with my food and recipes and I was pretty free before. I’ve made this recipe with 100% white all-purpose flour, organic all-purpose flour, King Arthur’s Sir Lancelot flour and I’ve replaced 3/4 to a cup of the white with white whole wheat and regular whole wheat. As per my usual, I almost always add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed. Many times I will add dried or fresh chopped herb(s) to the dough. No mater how I’ve played with this dough, it has always and I mean always gotten rave reviews.

One of my favorite pizzas with this dough is what I call breakfast pizza. I’ll saute some greens (baby spinach, kale, you name it ... nettles Neil) with a little garlic, onions, salt & pepper. Divide one disk of dough into two smaller individual pizzas and leaving the middle empty, spread the saute around the outside. Bake for 5 minutes, then drop an egg into the empty hole in the middle and return to the oven for 2 to 4 minutes - depends on how soft you want your egg.

One of the keys to stellar pizza success once you have a real crust recipe is the principle of less is more. When you think about topping a wonderful pizza crust, try to eliminate the kitchen sink scenario, settle on only about 3 ingredients and keep the sauce to a minimum.

I’ve used the dough to make little bites for appetizers that I blogged about here.

Our across the street neighbors traveled to the British Isles and were gone for three weeks. I had four of these dough disks awaiting in my fridge. It seemed just only right to invite them for a simple pizza dinner their first night back.

The proclamation: You need to open a Pizza Parlor NOW.

I crank my oven as high as it will go: 550°F. It takes 8 to 9 minutes for the crust to turn golden mahogany and the the cheese to beautifully melt. One day, at least it’s my dream, I’ll be able to do these in the summer on a grill outside.

There’s nothing really new here. I just really feel strongly that the world would be a better place if we all made really great pizzas from time to time.

So ... news on the BBB front is this: In an effort to simplify things you can now put it on your calendar to look for our postings ALWAYS on the 16th of the month and the Buddy Posting Date then will always be on the 29th. We pride ourselves on not having rules to follow but we’ve decided that this is about the freedom of not having to make a decision. I hope that makes sense to everyone.

Props for the Foodie

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 12:57:45 -0400

I was a junior in high school the year the Little Theater did the play Anastasia. I was in the running for the lead against a senior. That was the year I took a drama class with the Little Theater Sponsor teaching the drama class. I had been reading the part of Anastasia for months, was in love with the character and the story.

I was heart broken for four hours after the director called me. Then what with my mother being the mother she was and some strange strength in side, I did something I wouldn’t have believed possible. At ten o’clock at night, I called the Technical Director, explained that I didn’t get the part - she did sort of fluster me saying but you’re in the play - and could I chair or co-chair the Prop Committee?

I got the job of Prop Chairperson. As work on collecting props progressed in the first few weeks, it became obvious that the biggest “find” was going to be one or more Russian icons. I called Russian churches, a small Russian community group, every antique dealer I could find ... nothing.

Then one day I went with two of the boys to pick up a chair that a furniture store was loaning us for the play ... and there on a wall at the back of the store was THE ICON. The main body of it was a little less than two by three but it also had side pieces on hinges that opened and closed making it even bigger and so perfect. I tried to contain myself. The owner of the store. “No. It’s been in the family for generations and hung on the wall since we opened the store. It’s not for sale and not for loan.” No.

I went back twice a week for four weeks. No. But, he did start smiling at me when I’d come in the store. Who knows what happened, one day I went in and he said I could borrow it for the week-end of the play performances! Talk about stress until I returned that baby to the owner.

Now that is my PROP story.

Of course that prop story has nothing to say about food props and that is what Ilva has asked us to write about. She has some wonderful Sunday/Monday posts on where she’s found her food props, how she’s used them. Ilva sees things the way I wish I did. I know she’s in Italy and I’m in Texas but honestly, she sees what I don’t.

When I started trying to put this together, I learned something about myself ... learned it over again in a new way. I love beauty but I’m not a fussy person. I love finding just the perfect gift that because I’ve been around somebody, I know/feel/hope it will really give them that moment of joy ... but I don’t do fancy paper and bows to wrap it and probably don’t buy a card for it either. And it’s seldom for the special occasion.

When I look at my kitchen, it’s more country functional than big city Dallas. I have a backyard that has a pond, volunteer fennel for caterpillars to eat, a few volunteer sunflowers and a bird feeder that makes for a weedy yard. My neighbors have polished flower beds and pools. I pick fresh herbs from my backyard (and a few from the front) all summer and well into the fall. I love falling asleep listening to the bull frog call to his girl friend. I love watching the cardinal come to the feeder. I thrilled the other day when a hawk landed on our fence and then finally swooped in for a kill that he had dropped from above.

I know I’m going on and on but it’s like the gift without paper ... the backyard is what brings all the animal life and for me that’s the moment of joy that I’m after.

And what does any of this have to do about props ... food props? I think for me the food prop is about the how to function and the beauty of food becoming a dish.

Sometimes I think the food is the prop ...

To show the how to make say a spring roll.

I love the process and the beauty in the how to which is why I can use and love showing you how a shower cap is such an incredible thing to cover rising bread with and reusable for many so many more risings to follow.

This bad boy is summer fun ...

He is so bad he’s good!

So for me, a food prop can be just about anything ... a sprig of thyme fresh from the garden to a shower cap and everything in between.

Ilva and I would love for you to show us your food props, how you use them. Check out her first post here to see how she’s covering it.

BBB Tunisian Spicy Breads

Mon, 17 May 2010 08:34:12 -0400

Every month we gather round a different table and play with bread. Bread Baking Babes. Somebody is always questioning something, often it’s flour. One of us always seems to be without a kitchen/oven. But somehow, mostly we bake. We bake bread. This month we are HOT. Hot and spicy.

One of the best parts of this group, YeastSpotting and all of you out there who bake bread is what an eye opening world of diversity there is in what is “flour, water, yeast” that becomes BREAD! In the years before blogging, I baked lots of bread ... almost always a loaf, exotic was a braid. As they say “You’ve come a LONG way babe!” in the over four years ago when I first invited you to my kitchen table.

This month our Babe hostess inviting us to her kitchen table is Natashya (LivingInTheKitchenWithPuppies) with another wonderful bread - not a loaf and not a braid. Dainty little bites packed with spicy pizzazz! Thank You Natashya!

The recipe Natashya has brought us is from a treasure of a book called Savory Baking from the Mediterranean by Anissa Helou. I’ve had the book for some time now and it’s brisling with post-it-notes including one on this recipe. Bake something from each one of the cookbooks on my shelves ... this was the first one for this book. I am shamed to admit I have a second book of hers Street Foods of the Mediterranean which I’ve not made anything from ... so I’ll correct that now and make this a double

BBB Tunisian Spicy Breads
Savory Baking from the Mediterranean by Anissa Helou

I’ve had these on my list for several reasons: 1) I’m fascinated with 100% semolina dough; 2) I like the idea they’re baked; 3) I’ve wanted to make Harissa for a long time!

I should probably be disappointed at myself for not being more adventuresome with the spicy in this. The author even said in her introduction to these the heat of the spices is tempered by the bread casing ... and it was. Next time I’ll be bolder and I’ll also double the amount of filling and/or have a second choice available as I ran out with this.

I measured in cups and teaspoons and then weighted those amounts on my scale which is how you will find it below. I combined the dry ingredients (yeast, salt and flour) with the wet all at once. The directions given below are my own so if you have the book or can get your hands on it you may want to compare.

DOUGH
12 grams active dry yeast
583 grams semolina flour, Bob's Red Mill
6 grams salt
22 milliliters olive oil, extra for brushing
1 egg
252 milliliters water
AP flour, for kneading

FILLING: chakchouka
45 milliliters olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped =1 cup
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 medium Anaheim peppers, chopped
1 teaspoon harissa (use 4 teaspoons next time)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I omitted, add next time)
salt

1. Mix yeast, semolina flour and salt together in a bowl.

1. Mix olive oil, egg and water together.

3. Mix wet and dry together. I used a plastic dough scrapper to get this.

4. One squeeze with my hand brought things together.

1. Turn the dough out onto your counter. Mine still had dry un-incorporated flour on the bottom. Knead about 3 minutes. I did not need to add any additional water.

6. Cover the dough ball with the bowl and allow to rest 15 to 20 minutes. I was very loose with this timing and ran over at every one. In real time at this point I started making the Harissa.

1. Knead for 2 minutes. I put my hands in water, patted the dough ball all over and covered it with the bowl again. Allow it to rest while making the filling.

Make the filling:
8. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until golden. Add the tomatoes, chopped peppers, harissa, and cayenne. Season with salt to taste and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bell pepper is soft and the sauce is very thick. Remove from the heat and set aside.

9. Divide the dough into two pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Lightly flour the counter, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.

1. Preheat the oven to 400F (205C).

1. Roll out one ball of dough until it is 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) thick. I used a 3 1/2 inch (8.9 cm approx.) pastry cutter. Cut out as many circles of dough as possible. Pull the extra dough together kneading enough to bring it together again. I patted this again with water from my hands and placed it under cover.

1. Turn the circles over and place 1 tsp (5 ml) of filling in the middle of half of the circles. The book says to cover each circle with another circle of dough and seal ... I was whipping along and that was invisible to me. I folded each circle in half and created half circles. However you do it, you must seal the edges. You can seal the edges with finger or fork. I used a fork.

1. Brush tops and bottoms with olive oil and place on a non-stick baking sheet, or to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone pastry mat. You can cover these with a moist towel or large container and continue to cut, fill and shape the remaining dough. My bake sheet was full, so I put them in the oven.

14. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly crisp and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm.

Notes: To pan-fry the breads, heat a little oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook till golden about 3 to 5 minutes, turn and cook another 3 minutes until golden on the second side. Serve immediately. I’d like to try a batch this way but haven’t yet.

Double the filling
use 4 teaspoons harissa in filling
might try using the two rounds of dough using a 2 1/2 or 3 inch biscuit cutter to make one instead of folding it.

These were really delightful. We’ve enjoyed them for breakfast, lunch, appetizers and dinner with salad. I’ll be making them again!

And Harissa as I did it (I have changed amounts as recipe called for 8 oz of dried chilies and I had one).

Harissa: Hot Chili Paste
--------------------------------------------------
Recipe By: Mediterranean Street Food by Anissa Helou

1 oz. dried chilies
10 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons caraway seeds
olive oil, to cover

Pull off stems. Shake out loose seeds from chilies. Soak chilies in water 20 minutes. Drain.

Use a food processor to process to paste like consistency.

Keep covered in oil.

Notes:
Soak the peppers - I forgot it first time.

Make these! You’ll enjoy them. If you’re like me, you’ll immediately start seeing these with a multitude of different fillings!

To be a Buddy, check out Natashya’s post here.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.

UpDated

I’ve baked these again made with half spelt flour and added ground flax seed to the dough ... and it is wow good.

I also used a lentil, sausage, pepper filling. These hot lips are good.

Ciabatta Twisted

Mon, 10 May 2010 12:55:49 -0400

When I dropped a pencil in this dough while it was mixing in the KitchenAid stand mixer ... well, what would you have thought?

This is doomed, we should switch universes now or perhaps pick an alternate reality ... Maybe that happened because after alternating digging in the garden with stretching and folding this dough every 30 minutes four times, the stars aligned at mid-day, a fresh spinach, pepper jack cheese and fresh thyme three egg omelette came off the stove top just as the small twisted rolls from this dough were hot from the oven!

That’s cause for a twist and shout if ever there was one, especially when this month’s BreadBakingDay theme is “Twisted Bread” hosted by none other than our very own BBB Natashya over at LivingInTheKitchenWithPuppies.

I’m trying to have cooked/baked something from every cookbook I own - and that puts me in the running for Lynn’s High Five. Read about it HERE.

I got Baking Artisan Bread by Ciril Hitz well over a year ago. I’ve watched the DVD that came with it a number of times. I’ve read through it multiple times. ... Never baking from it.

When I saw Natashya’s theme for BreadBakingDay this month, I went to the Bread section on my book shelf and started randomly looking for “twisted” in the indexes. I found Ciabatta Twist Sticks in Hitz’s book and went with it.

This is not a giant book. There are only 10 formulas given in it but they are detailed and each contains multiple variations. I have not followed the formula exactly; you knew I couldn’t do that. So, I’m not going to give you the formula straight from the book; this is the formula as I did it. I’d recommend to check out the book, it is excellent. He gives temperatures for dough, uses different steaming techniques among other things than the way I did it.

Even with my changes, this bread is the rave with my neighbors now. Gorn & I really enjoyed this! Heck, it was so good that I turned around and made it again the next day.

The secret to the success of this bread is long slow rising/resting and stretch and fold technique. Stretch and fold sounds strange but is very simple and fast to execute. I use a square container to allow this bread to rise in. To stretch and fold: remove lid, oil hands, lift top edges of dough and fold toward your body one third, lift bottom edges of dough up and fold away from your body one third. Think in terms of folding a piece of paper as you would folding it into thirds to fit in an envelop. Now, lift the right sides of the dough and fold one third to the left follow by lifting the left side of the dough over one third. Now flip/turn the dough over. Those four lifts and fold is a complete stretch and fold! Might take a minute if you include washing and drying your hands first.

Aside from the fact that the taste of this bread is so fabulous, the most fascinating part about this bread - to me - is how dramatic the changes are between each of these four stretch and fold sessions. You’ll notice a strengthening and lengthening in the gluten strands between each one AND each time you’ll notice an increased lightness, lots more air.

Ciabatta Twisted

Recipe By: Ciril Hitz: Baking Artisan Bread
Yield: 4 log loaves; one loaf can be 4 to 6 rolls

POOLISH
330 grams bread flour
330 milliliters water
pinch instant yeast

FINAL DOUGH FORMULA
613 grams bread flour, (100 to 150 grams of it can be whole wheat)
405 milliliters water
2.6 grams instant yeast (3/4 teaspoon)
18 grams salt
3 tablespoons flax seed meal
poolish - all of it

Poolish:
Mix flour, water & yeast till smooth.
Cover; allow to sit at room temperature overnight about 16 hours.

Final Dough
Mix, flour, water, yeast, salt & poolish.
On low speed with dough hook, mix for 6 minutes total; stopping every 2 minutes to scrap down the sides & bottom of the bowl.
Mix one minute longer on medium.

Pour into square proofing container.
Rest 30 minutes.
Stretch and fold.
Rest 30 minutes.
Stretch and fold.
Rest 30 minutes.
Stretch and fold.
Rest 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 480°

Don’t be afraid of this dough but do handle it gently so as not to deflate it of all it’s airiness. Think about each one of those stretch and folds you’ve just done and don’t be afraid of it. It has shown you it is strong. But think gentle and don’t over do it.
Divide into four log loaves. I cut it with my dough scraper/bench scraper.
OR one log makes 4 to 6 rolls. We found the rolls perfect with morning coffee, soup or a small sandwich.

Sprinkle couche with flour - and seeds (caraway, poppy, sesame, black sesame) if desired.

Twist the shaped rolls or log and place

between rolls of the couche to maintain size & shape. Dust with flour and cover with dusted couche.

Allow to rise after shaping 30 to 45 minutes.

Slide shaped dough directly onto pre-heated baking stone and mist oven two or three times in the first 6 minutes.

Bake rolls 25 minutes; long loaves 30 to 35 minutes. If rotating the breads at 15 or 20 minutes to ensure even baking, turn oven down 10° and use longer bake time to prevent over browning. (my oven comes back on and the return to 480° after opening tends to cause over browning).

To participate in BakingBreadDay you need to submit your post to Natashya before Tuesday 1 June. Read about it HERE.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.

Asparagus

Thu, 6 May 2010 12:26:39 -0400

One of the things I love about yeast bread is that I can spend a few minutes with it ... and then leave it alone to work it’s magic. All by itself. Don’t you love foods that require so little action on your part?

Cook books on the other hand require real effort.
You don’t get that? Well, you have to read them. And I, like you, probably read them like novels. Still, I find I have cookbooks galore, cook from them all the time ... and still find myself reading the NYT cooking section
thinking .... I have that book ...
thinking ... I never saw that recipe ...
thinking ... that can’t be in my copy ...
reading: page 236
exclaiming ... that was in invisible ink when I went through my copy of The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook ... I would have seen this!

So, as I’m reading Melissa Clark’s words ...

“... I thought, I'd never experienced an asparagus spear quite like this before. ... It was cooked all the way through and evenly supple from tip to stem, yet it was not mushy or floppy. Best of all, it was so imbued with the tarragon ... “
and I’m thinking ... now how likely is that really? I mean after two hours in the oven? Can’t happen.

And so like any good foodie, I went for a test bake.

And you know what, I suggest you will soon find yourself pulling out a large parchment piece

laying out freshly snipped FAT asparagus stems on that same parchment paper

sprinkling your best extra virgin olive oil over those big FAT asparagus stems

generously sprinkling salt & pepper AND freshly torn French tarragon over those same FAT asparagus stems

sealing same FAT asparagus stems in the parchment paper making a folded envelop, tied or not, I didn’t

placing same parchment wrapped FAT asparagus stems in a 175° oven and WALKING AWAY for two - 2 - hours.

Then I suggest you will find yourself dreaming the same dreams I’m having: What if I mix that olive oil with just a teaspoon of butter and do that? What other veggie can I do this same thing with ... cauliflower?? ... carrot ... ????

Right, why do we need cook books for recipes like this one? My feeling is I need LOTS more cookbooks like this one and a finer tuned reading ability to sniff out more techniques like this one.

Melissa’s article showed this asparagus with mushrooms, Wolfert’s books pairs it with caper mayonnaise, I served mine plain and thought I was in asparagus heaven.

They are magical! Where will you take it?

Great link for all things Asparagus in NYTs.

BBB Potato Bread with Chives

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:30:24 -0400

I sometimes wonder why there is a slight negative connotation to the word simple. Why do we wind ourselves into a tight knot to avoid doing the simple recipe? I know challenge is a good thing but sometimes simple is so much more than enough, and there are still many lessons to be learned in the simple.

That is why I found Sara’s, our Kitchen of the Month, introduction to this months Bread Baking Babes bread so wonderful. To quote Sara: It's a simple bread from a simple Babe, would you expect anything less from me!

Potato Bread with Chives
from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson

"The addition of mashed potatoes gives this bread a moist, dense texture and delicate flavor that is accented by that of the chives. This bread is best eaten slightly warm from the oven on the day it is made. It is also good toasted."

Let it be known that I used skim milk (yes I know that means mine wasn’t vegan, but I know soy works great and will use it when I bake it for my vegan son), extra chives and added 3 tablespoons of ground flax seeds. I also used half white whole wheat both times I made it; whole wheat just needs another 5 to 10 minutes extra. I start checking for bread being done at least 5 minutes before the recipe suggests. Any whole wheat in a loaf I want it to reach 200 to 204°F internally before I take it out. Always allow whole wheat to cool or you run the risk of it being soggy (undercooked). If you cut it too soon and do get some sogginess, toasting it will usually correct it mostly.

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
236 ml water
1 teaspoon sugar, or maple syrup
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons salt
230 grams cold mashed potatoes
235 ml soy milk
625 grams All-purpose flour
2 to 5 tablespoons chives, fresh minced
3 tablespoons flax seed ground

In a large bowl, combine the yeast and 1/4 cup of the water. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes, then stir in the remaining 3/4 cup of water, the corn oil and the salt. Mix in the potatoes, then stir in the soy milk. Add about half the flour, stirring to combine, then work in the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Transfer to a lightly floured board.

Lightly flour your hands and work surface. Knead the dough well until it is smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes, using more flour as necessary so the dough does not stick. Place in a large lightly oiled bowl and turn over once to coat with oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

Want a cheap and simple cover for rising bread? I use these “shoe boxes” that I got at the DollarStore.

Meanwhile, lightly oil a large baking sheet and set aside. Punch the dough down and knead lightly. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, sprinkle with the chives, and knead until the dough is elastic and the chives are well distributed, 3 to 5 minutes. Shape the dough into one large or two small round loaves and place on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly and cover with a clean damp towel or lightly oiled plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place and let rise again until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400'F. Use a sharp knife to cut an X into the top of the loaf or loaves. Bake on the center oven rack until golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes, depending on size. Tap on the bottom of the loaf or loaves - if they sound hollow, the bread is done. Remove from the sheet and let cool slightly on a wire rack before slicing.

Babes - feel free to make this bread your own! I tried this with rosemary but found I liked the chives much more.

As you can see I did my loaves in a banneton.

If you’ve ever “enjoyed” the little grain invader bugs (and who hasn’t), here is something very innocuous that I use to “discourage” them. It will not get rid of a full infestation but will tend to repel them before they get started. I learned this trick on our sail across the Atlantic.

It’s another example of the simple. Something about the chemistry of bay leaves mildly repels the little buggies. This is how I store my bannetons, nested with several bay leaves in each.

To paraphrase Sara: Sometimes we need “simple” to leave time for the “finer” things in life, like babies and lovers and golf and friends and coffee.

Make this bread and let me know what “finer” things in life did it let you enjoy!
To join us baking as a Bread Baking Buddy check out Sara’s post HERE
BUDDY DATE - FRIDAY APRIL 30.

This goes to Susan at WildYeast for her weekly Yeast Spotting. I’ve come to look at the weekly Yeast Spotting as a delightful trip to a Bakery Wonderland! If you’re not familiar with Susan and Yeast Spotting, it’s explained here.

I think the burning question is:
Is Duck Soup really simple?

Always Happy Baking.

Cauliflower: Baked, Spicy & Easy

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:05:40 -0400

Cauliflower ... you love it or you hate it. I’m right aren’t I?

If you love it and I do, you probably have one, maybe two favorite great recipes for it. If you have more than three, you are really one enriched person.

I do enjoy cauliflower but it’s also one of those veggies that I see in the grocery store ... it looks so gorgeous ... it almost leaps into my basket ... then it sits there neglected ... then I’m home with it ... tried and true or something new ... one day you hear a little voice telling you in no uncertain words that you’d better get on with it OR things are not going to be pretty, and you can for sure forget about tried and true or anything except the trash .. tried and true wins most times but not this time. I am a richer woman, I found me a new GREAT cauliflower dish!

The discovery story: Recently, I’ve started adding some foodie apps on my iPhone. At the moment I’m loving Grocery IQ for my shopping list!

Now I wheel my cart through the store clutching my phone with my list! Feel a little techie but I don’t leave my list at home or in the car now. I can even scan items into the list with prices.

BUT GroceryIQ doesn’t have recipes and doesn’t have suggestions for what to do with this head of cauliflower.

Another app on my phone that I find myself using all the time is MacGourmet. MacGourmet is software installed on my computer. It came with a bunch of recipes (most of which I pitched). It was super easy to cut and past my recipes out of Word (and recipe sites on the web) into the program. Then I sync the iPhone with the computer and BAM! all my recipes are on my phone. In the store, if I see a special on cauliflower and I remember seeing a recipe I clipped wanting to try from your blog, there’s the recipe and I can see whatever else I need to make it. It will also generate shopping list for the recipes, nutritional data AND it keeps a list of the wines with my photos of the labels and our notes on what we thought of the wine.

BUT what MacGourmet doesn’t do is tell me “Give me a new idea for a head of cauliflower dish for dinner tonight.” AhHa! Enter AllRecipes.com the recipe app with “search” on the web and on my phone! With an almost 5 star rating and 281 review, that seemed like a very good idea!

Of course you know me, I had to change it around a little but the idea is there. A five minute prep time, ten if you’re slow and easily distracted like I am.

This is what and how I did Baked Whole Cauliflower:

Cauliflower: Baked, Spicy & Easy

Inspired by Allrecipes.com
Serving Size: 6

1 large cauliflower
1/2 cup seasoned panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
3 tablespoon olive oil,
1 clove garlic, pressed
salt
Penseys Aleppo Pepper
pinch oregano
Penseys Tuscan Sunset Seasoning

1. Clean cauliflower, and trim off leaves and any brown spots. Break into floweretes. Place in micro-wave bowl with 2 or three tablespoons water or chicken broth (I used homemade chicken broth because that’s what is in my fridg right now.) Micro-wave 90 seconds, toss, micro-wave 90 more seconds or until just short of tender. I say just short of tender because you’re going to bake this 15 minutes more in the oven. I did this part in the morning.
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Pour about 3 tablespoons olive oil in the baking dish. Toss the cauliflower floweretes in the oil to coat.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, pressed garlic, salt, Aleppo pepper, oregano, Tuscan Seasoning (or seasonings of your choice) and the Parmesan cheese. Mix well.
4. Toss & coat the cauliflower floweretes in the breadcrumb mixture.
5. When the wine is just about gone: Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Enjoy!

And now for something BEAUTIFUL ...

No, I am not beautiful but I did get this award from Katie at ThymeForCooking. Katie is beautiful and funny and lives in France and gardens and cooks and bakes bread (in France! where the bread is way past good). For winning the award, I’m suppose to tell you and Katie 7 things about myself ... beautiful things? What kinds of things I’m suppose to tell you, I don’t exactly know so I think I’m going to just tell you the first 7 things that pop into my head ...

1. Ilva talked about being annoyed with herself for not getting things done or just forgetting them. Several days ago Katie talked about Spring Guilt. Sara recently talked about loosing your brain after a baby is born. I’ve got all those feelings in abundance and my babies were born over 35 years ago. You’d think I could easily find my most treasured cooking book that Ilva is looking for in her “Show us your most treasured cooking book” event (she’ll round up this one on May 15. But, I haven’t come up with ONE yet.
2. Saturday I washed 80 bricks so that Gorn could use them in the side patio. Perhaps I can finish tomorrow ...
3. I love kneading bread. ... Really you already knew that !?!
4. The wisteria was glorious this year. I miss it but look forward to the clematis taking over.
5. I’ve already baked the BBB bread for this month twice. I can tell you it is wonderful.
6. I have friends & neighbors who think I’m a real techie ... but I know I’m not. Thirty years ago I took several computer languages (Fortran and Cobal). I think that has allowed me to visualize somethings. But, it also taught me that programing a computer is not something I want to do.
7. Every morning I look forward to the joy of seeing the two pairs of Cardinals who come to our backyard feeder and bird bath.
8. Yesterday we were expecting a couple for a visit in the afternoon ... they came with his mom & dad, their son and his bride-to-be. I love surprises, special friends with great families and a table full!

The other part of the award of course is to pass it along to 7 more bloggers ... yes, I’m aware I can not count. Seven more beautiful bloggers ... who all seem to enjoy bread at least from time to time.

Rosemary & Garlic
Delta Kitchen
Delectable Tidbits
The Bread Bakers Dog
Blog From My Kitchen
WildYeastBlog
BewitchingKitchen

The BBB bread will be posted on Saturday, I hope to see you then.
Happy Bakings.

Green Dip & Green Waffle Chips

Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:27:08 -0400

I first became aware of Autism sometime in the ‘60s when I was working as a nurse at St Louis Children’s Hospital. Back then it was ill defined. Cure wasn’t discussed because there was so very little understood about it. Help for families and the children was all over the place and it’s effectiveness was suspect at best in most cases.

A lot has changed in those 50 years. It’s still ill defined, still a very wide range of symptoms and involvement but there seems to be better treatment/management options available for families now.

If you are a regular reader here, you’ve noticed I’m in a slump here - that’s being kind. I’ve been reading lots of mysteries jokingly saying I was detecting a new way to get myself back to writing about the food I’ve been cooking. Between Neil & Ilva’s events, perhaps I’ll drag myself back.

Just a week ago my good friend Neil ask me to participate with him in bringing attention to Autism by blogging about a single colored healthy food. Why a single color food you ask? You could say because young children are really picky about the food they eat and they can take some mighty strange ways to be picky. Kids are kids. Perhaps the one I remember best from the hospital, maybe it was my first, was a little girl who wouldn’t eat anything broken. My sister ate nothing but WonderBread spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar between 3 and 5. Picky: I won’t eat anything with two colors. I will only eat green.

Green that was somehow the color I picked to challenge myself with. Then I was stumped for pretty much until just yesterday ... when I was in William Sonoma talking with Pauline. She told be about a crostini they made in the store the day before and how great it was. I came home with only her list of ingredients and put my little dish together.

Green Dip/Topping/Filling
frozen petit peas
garlic cloves
olive oil
Parmesan cheese but next I’m trying a little blue cheese
3 small basil leaves
tiny drop of Champagne vinegar
salt & pepper

Defrost peas in mesh basket under hot running water. Blend in food processor till smooth.

So simple to do, reasonably healthy. This was wonderful dipping carrots and celery. Celery was even green.

Update:

This is not green eggs and ham but these ARE GREEN Waffles. And they really are good. I used this recipe

but added 6 handfuls of fresh baby spinach to the buttermilk and blended it. That required cutting the buttermilk down just a little and cooking them in the waffle iron 3 beeps on my Villanova Heart Waffle make instead of the usually 2 because of the extra water the spinach added.

I’m always looking for new ways to use spinach and can’t believe I haven’t tried this before. I’m not sure it would work with a picky one color eater, maybe they’d be happy seeing the batter was really green before it was cooked ... don’t show them with the egg not mixed in BUT wow am I ever delighted with these!!!

And now ... deep breath ... I’m going to promise you I’ll find a treasured cookbook and show it to Ilva ... even if I’m months late. I’m thinking if I tell you about it, I’ll get it done ;)