Avanzi di Pane

Avanzi di pane means leftover bread in Italian. At least, it does by Bing translate standards. Google translate called leftover bread pane avanzato which translates to advanced bread. Technically, I guess that's reasonable, however, when I put avanzi di pane in Google, it came out as leftover bread.

The suffering I do for my art...

This all started because we had leftover bread. What a surprise, eh?!? The upside to baking is having all of this fabulous bread. The downside is having all of this fabulous bread. We do make our own breadcrumbs, but... there's a limit there, too.

As luck would have it, I remembered a blog I had seen several years ago called Rustico Cooking. The blog belongs to a cooking school in NYC, and, while it hasn't been updated in a couple of years, it does have some fun ideas - like sausage and escarole over cheesy bread cubes.

I started reading the recipe to Victor this morning and the first thing he said was it needs white beans. I thought it needed pancetta, as well. And some white wine... Part of the fun of cooking is looking at an idea and seeing how it can be changed... bouncing ideas back and forth... I don't want to say improved because I'm not improving it - I'm changing it. Semantics, I know, but... I do think it's different.

Here's my take on it...

Avanzi di Pane con Scarola, Salsiccia e Formaggio

adapted from Rustico Cooking

for the sausage and escarole:

  • 8 oz hot Italian Sausage
  • 2 oz pancetta, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large head escarole, chopped
  • 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup white wine, divided
  • pinch red chili flakes
  • S&P to taste

Remove sausage from casings and place in bowl. Add about 1/4 cup white wine and break up. Set aside.

In a large skillet with lid, saute pancetta until slightly crispy. Add sausage, chili pepper, and garlic and cook until sausage is cooked through.

Add remaining wine and cook for a minute to very slightly reduce. Stir in beans.

Add escarole and mix in well. Cover, reduce heat, and cook a few minutes until escarole begins to wilt.

Meanwhile, make the bread...

  • 4 cups leftover bread cubes
  • olive oil
  • garlic powder
  • 4 oz fontina or other Italian cheese
  • 4 oz fresh mozzarella
  • S&P, to taste

Drizzle bread with oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place on rimmed baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes at 375°F. Remove from oven and sprinkle cheeses over bread. Return to oven and bake until cheese melts - about 5 more minutes.

to assemble:

Divide cheesy bread among plates and top with sausage escarole.

Talk about something that could use a runny fried egg on! But even without the egg, this was good! Really simple, lots of flavor, and ready in about 15 minutes. It's the ultimate fast food.

One thing to keep in mind is you do want some liquid in with the escarole and sausage - but you don't want a lot. Keep your eye on it and if you have too much - keep it in the pan when you're dishing it out.

The cheesy sourdough toast was the perfect foil for the slightly spicy, slightly bitter, and slightly creamy topping.

We shall make this one, again!

 


More Sourdough

This is classic the more I learn, the less I know. Which, of course, means I need to learn more. To know less. Or something...

Yesterday's sourdough got me thinking about the things I liked in bread. Today, I started out with a new idea - and immediately screwed up the measurements. I had to go back and redo things a bit - so I ended up with more dough than I had anticipated.

I decided to use the microwave as a proofing box. I boiled a 2 cup measuring cup full of water, set it off to the side, and put the bowl of dough inside. For the first hour, it just sat there. It seemed like it didn't want to rise. Victor told me I make good bread, so don't worry about it. Dump it and move on. Great advice except I'm stubborn and pigheaded. Or, indefatigable. Or... stubborn and pigheaded. Then... I noticed a bubble. It was tiny, but it was there! I did a pull, fold, and stretch after an hour and a half. It almost looked promising. After two hours, it had actually increased in size a bit. In three, the dough was like magic. Rising, folding, forming, resting... Another classic lesson in patience. I have so much of it. I formed two loaves and patiently let them rise, again...

I really wanted to see if I could mimic the Larraburu sourdough of my youth. My starter isn't nearly sour enough to accomplish something like that and I didn't want to do an 18 hour or overnight-in-the-refrigerator rise to increase the sourness. I wanted the bread today! Plus, my oven isn't big enough for a real loaf. Nor do I have steam injectors. But... I am stubborn and pigheaded. I hit a few San Francisco websites and searched for Larraburu - and got some good ideas and information.

What's interesting about this is I have never in my life tried to replicate something I had elsewhere. I have gotten great ideas and I have made often things based upon things I've had or seen, but I've always been too much of a realist to think I could make at home something a commercial kitchen produced. I've worked in too many commercial kitchens. I know better.

But knowing I couldn't make it the same meant I needed to delve into it more deeply if I really wanted a certain outcome. It started me thinking - and learning - more about the science of bread making. I know how to bake bread. I know what different types of dough should feel like. I have made lots of breads - my favorite Italian rustic breads use bigas - starters. And, it seems I've been doing a lot of things right - without actually knowing why it was important or necessary. But there's so much more to learn...

I finally have a bit of a grasp on Baker's Percentage in a recipe - so that's a start. The more I know the more I need to learn...

Here's the basic recipe for today's bread. I actually made almost 1 1/2 of this because I screwed up my initial measurements - and I wasn't going to toss out perfectly good flour and water! I made two loaves - the recipe should only make one large loaf.

Measurements are in grams.

Sourdough Bread

  • 565 gr flour
  • 339 gr water
  • 11 gr salt
  • 85 gr starter

**About an hour before baking, preheat oven with baking stone to 500°F. Have a sheet pan on the rack under for boiling water for steam.

Mix the flour and water in a stand mixer for 1-2 minutes. Cover the mixer bowl tightly and autolyse* for about an hour.

*Autolyse is a method whereby the flour and water (of a bread recipe) are first mixed together, then rested for a period of time. This helps make exceptionally extensible dough.

Sprinkle the salt on the dough and add the starter. Mix for 1-2 minutes to incorporate everything and then mix for 5 minutes.  If necessary, adjust the dough consistency by adding small amounts of water or flour.  The dough should be tacky but not sticky and should clean both the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.

Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly.

Ferment at 105º F for 2 1/2 to 3 hours in a humid environment. A microwave with a cup of boiling water works well for this. Stretch and fold once at 1 1/4 hours.

Remove from bowl, form into a ball, and let rest on the counter for 20 minutes - covered with a towel.

Shape into a boule or bâtard and place on cornmeal-covered peel.

Cover with a towel and let proof another 30-40 minutes.

Make several slits on dough with razor blade or very sharp knife. Transfer the loaf to the baking stone. Pour 1 cup boiling water into pan under baking stone and quickly close oven door. Turn down the oven to 450º F.

Bake about 40 minutes for a bâtard or 40-45 minutes for a boule. Look for a nice, dark crust.

Cool on rack completely before devouring.

If I only made this bread for the rest of my life, it would not be a bad thing. It really came out great! But it won't be the only bread I ever bake, again, because I have a dozen ideas forming in my little mind...

I just put a loaf in the freezer so I'm not going to be making any more bread for a few days, at least... but I see a sourdough walnut raisin in our future...

This is fun!

 

 

 

 


Sourdough Bread

The sourdough bread of my youth doesn't exist, anymore. The very best - in my not so humble opinion - was Larraburu. Dark, crusty, crunchy crust and a rich interior, filled with holes. The kind of bread that when you toasted it, the butter - or peanut butter - would flow through the holes making a mess everywhere. It was a kid's gastronomic dream come true.

Larraburu went out of business in 1976 - the result of a lawsuit over a 6 year old being hit by a bread delivery truck - and that left Parisian pretty much the sole sourdough survivor. Boudin calls itself the Original San Francisco Sourdough, but I don't remember them at all until they started up a bakery/cafe at the remodeled Stonestown Galleria. The 1976 San Francisco Chronicle article talking of Larraburu's demise doesn't mention Boudin, either...

Larraburu also had the best sourdough rolls. Edgewater Delicatessen right up the street from us sold them for 10¢ each. I'd buy a roll and 25¢ worth of salami and have a feast - when I actually had 35¢ to spend.

Quite a while ago, I bought the Tartine Bread cookbook, read through a bit of it, and decided that making starter from scratch was a waste of time and energy. The tone of the book just came across as a bit elitist, to me. Lord knows I'm not even remotely opinionated or food-snobish, myself... ::ducking the lightning bolts aimed at me from the sky::

Once again, I was wrong. It's not, and creating a starter is actually really easy. What I ended up doing, though, was buying a starter from a bakery called Breadtopia. It was after buying the starter and dealing with the 3 days of feeding and regenerating it that I read the Tartine book, again, and realized I had just done what they were talking about - minus something like one step.

Okay... I'm not the brightest color in the crayon box... what can I say? I have live starter and a loaf of really good bread - and the ability to make many more.

So here's my take on a loaf of sourdough... It's a bit Breadtopia and a bit me. I didn't want to use the Dutch Oven process so I played with it and baked it on oven tiles.

Sourdough Bread

  • 16 oz flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/4 cup starter

Instructions

Mix together the dry ingredients.


Dissolve 1/4 cup starter into purified water


Add water / starter to dry ingredients and stir until the water is incorporated.


Cover with plastic and let sit roughly 10-14 hours at room temperature (~ 68 - 72F).

Stretch and fold dough over itself several times.

Cover loosely with plastic and rest for 15 minutes. Form into boule.

Transfer to floured parchment on a peel, cover with a towel,  and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.


Bake at6 475°F for about 33 minutes.

Let cool completely on rack.

This particular bread had a very lightly-sourdough flavor. Great taste, but just a tad gummier than I like. That probably had nothing to do with the fact that we cut into it almost straight out of the oven! It is a wetter dough than I'm used to dealing with. I think future loaves will be a little less so.

The crust was excellent and had a really great crunch and texture, but the bread I remember so well had a dull crust - thick and dark and it crackled and crunched when you bit into it. And it left crumbs everywhere.

I think I may try a loaf without the steam to see what a dry oven will give me.

Stay tuned...

 

 


Pane Bianco

It's raining outside.

It started yesterday and will continue through tonight. Lots and lots of rain. It's also pushing 60°F outside. Just a tad unseasonable for the Mid-Atlantic states in early February. The radio pundit said this would have been three feet of snow if it had been cold. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that it's not.

I've always loved a good close-down-the-eastern-seaboard snow, but, all of a sudden this year, I'm kinda over snow. I refuse to admit that it's old age on my part, so I'm going to blame Nonna. If we get snow and the power goes out, we're screwed. Victor and I can handle it - we have books, we can read, we can cook, and even play on our phones - and stay warm with a fire in the fireplace. Nonna can't do any of the above. Without her TV, space heater, and electric throw set on high, she would be miserable - and so would we.

Nah... I'd rather it be rain.

In honor of the rain, I decided to bake a loaf of bread. I know... how unusual for me to be baking bread, eh?!? But since it's raining and I had decided soup was on the menu for dinner, bread seemed like a good idea. And since a simple soup was for dinner, I decided we needed a bread I hadn't made before. I headed over to the King Arthur website to see what was up.

I was scrolling through the French and Italian bread recipes and a figure-8 loaf caught my eye. It was stuffed with cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil... sounded pretty good.

I have to admit that I don't have a lot of luck with King Arthur recipes. Their measurements and what I should be achieving never seem to jive with what is happening in reality. Today was no exception.

The cooks notes at the end of the recipe stated if I was using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, I should decrease the water from 1/3 cup to 1/4 cup. It also stated that I should have a smooth and very soft dough, slightly sticking to the bottom of the mixer. I started with the full 1/3 cup and had to add another 1/4 cup of water to make that smooth dough. I also take issue with a recipe that calls for adding oil at the beginning. Flour need to be hydrated with water before oil is added. Adding the oil directly to dry flour inhibits water absorption.

It also stated I should loosely cover the baking bread after 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. I didn't cover it and you can see that after 40 minutes in the oven, it did not over-brown by any stretch of the imagination.

Complaints aside, I ended up with a really good loaf of bread!

I changed the filling, a bit, using my favorite Italian cheese blend, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and kalamata olives.

Pane Bianco

adapted from King Arthur Flour

Dough

  • 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
  • 1/3 cup lukewarm water
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

Filling

  • 1 cup shredded Italian-blend cheese
  • 1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 10 chopped kalamata olives

Directions

To make the dough:

Combine all of the dough ingredients in a bowl and mix and knead to make a smooth, very soft dough. The dough should stick a bit to the bottom of the bowl if you're using a stand mixer.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it's doubled in size.

On a lightly-floured board, gently deflate the dough. Flatten and pat it into a 22" x 8 1/2" rectangle. Spread with the cheese, tomatoes, garlic, and olives.

Starting with one long edge, roll the dough into a log. Pinch the edges to seal. Place the log seam-side down on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

Using kitchen shears, start 1/2" from one end and cut the log lengthwise down the center about 1" deep, to within 1/2" of the other end. Keeping the cut side up, form an "S" shape. Tuck both ends under the center of the "S" to form a "figure 8;" pinch the ends together to seal.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, 45 to 60 minutes. While the loaf is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Uncover the bread, and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it with foil after 20 to 25 minutes to prevent over-browning. Remove the bread from the oven, and transfer it to a rack to cool.

The crumb is light and rich just as an egg bread should be. The filling ingredients are strong, so a little goes a long way. You could probably up the cheese a bit, but I wouldn't add too many more olives or tomatoes. This is one of those less is more moments.

Even though I usually have issues with the King Arthur recipes, I'll be back there again and again for ideas. I think with any recipe it's important to read them through before beginning, and use your best judgement when making them. If a recipe states you should have a soft dough and you're dealing with a brick, slowly add some water. If it says it should be pulling away from the bowl and yours looks like plaster of paris, slowly add flour.

Recipes just can't take in every variable there is... age and moisture content of flour, humidity, kitchen temperature, temperature of all the ingredients, and the relative hardness or softness of your water can really play havoc with bread. Water that is too hard toughens the gluten structure and screws up fermentation. Water that is too soft does the opposite and creates soft, sticky dough.

The only real solution is to bake lots of bread and learn by touch and feel what a good dough should be!

So start baking!

The simple soup for dinner became A Chicken Vegetable soup with little noodles, rice, farro, carrots, onion, celery, shallots, peas, green beans, navy beans... throw it in the pot and make it all hot!

 

 


Rustic Potato Bread

Okay, boys and girls... this is a strange recipe. It pretty much contradicts everything I've ever known about bread baking - and it came out perfect!

Rustic Potato Bread is made with potatoes that have been boiled in salted water - cut but unpeeled - allowed to dry on the counter, and then worked into a bread dough - all the while looking like it will never happen. The secret here is to trust the recipe. Really.

The recipe comes from Leslie Mackie when she was on Baking With Julia. The PBS show is on reruns on Create TV and, since I have the cookbook, it's fun to follow along on some of the shows - like when a young Martha Stewart makes a huge wedding cake!

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of bread and I'm always up for a new recipe. However, it seems that I'm always making variations on my favorite Pane Pugliese from Carol Field. It's time to take some of those other recipes I have and start baking!

This was a great one to do. The caveat is to follow the recipe. It doesn't look like it's going to come together, but it really does.

It also rises fast. First rise is 20-30 minutes, second rise another 20 and they're ready to bake.

Rustic Potato Bread

adapted from Leslie Mackie in Baking with Julia

Makes 2 loaves

  • 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3)
  • 4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup tepid reserved potato water (80 to 90 degrees F)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Cooking the Potatoes.

Scrub the potatoes and cut them into quarters, peel and all. Toss them into a 2 quart pot, cover with water, add 2 teaspoons of the salt, and boil until the potatoes are soft enough to be pierced easily with the point of a knife. Dip a measuring cup into the pot and draw off 1/2 cup of the potato water; reserve. Drain the potatoes in a colander and then spread them out, either in the colander, or on a cooling rack over a jelly-roll pan, and let them cool and air-dry for 20 to 30 minutes. It's important that the potatoes be dry before they're mashed.

Mixing the dough.

When the potatoes are cool, stir the yeast into the reserved potato water (if the water is no longer warm, heat it for a few seconds in a microwave oven--it should feel warm to the touch) and allow it to rest for 5 minutes; it will turn creamy.

Meanwhile, turn the cooked potatoes into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mash them. With the mixer on low speed, add the dissolved yeast and the olive oil and mix until the liquids are incorporated into the potatoes.

Replace the paddle with the dough hook and, still mixing on low speed, add the flour and the remaining 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and mix for 11 minutes more. The dough will be firm at first and soft at the finish. At the start, it will look dry, so dry you'll think you're making a pie crust. But as the dough is worked, it will be transformed. It may even look like a brioche, cleaning the sides of the bowl but pooling at the bottom. Have faith and keep beating.

First rise.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes, at which point the dough will have risen noticeably, although it may not have doubled.

While the bread is proofing, position a rack in the bottom of the oven and fit it with a baking stone or quarry tiles, leaving a border of at least 1 inch all around. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place a linen towel on a baking sheet, rub the towel with flour, and set aside; this will be the resting place for the bread's final rise. Rub a baker's peel or baking sheet with cornmeal or flour. Fill a spray bottle with water; set aside.

Shaping the dough.

Turn the bread out into a lightly floured surface and, using a dough scraper, cut the dough in half. To shape each half into a torpedo shape, first shape it into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Starting at the end farthest from you, roll up the dough toward you. When you're on your last roll, stop and pull the free end of the dough toward you, stretching it gently, and dust its edge with flour. Finish the roll and, if necessary, rock the loaf back and forth a little to taper the ends and form a torpedo, or football.

Second rise.

Place the loaves on the floured towel, seam side down, and cover them with the ends of a towel (or another towel). Let the breads rise at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Baking the bread.

When you're ready to bake, spray the oven walls with water and immediately close the oven door to trap the steam. Turn the breads out, seam side up, onto the peel or baking sheet and transfer them to the oven. Spray the oven with water again and bake the loaves for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the crust is very brown, the loaves sound hollow when thumped on the bottom, and, the most important test, the interior temperature measures 200 degrees F when an instant-read thermometer is plunged into the center of the loaves. Remove the loaves from the oven and cool on a rack at least 20 minutes before slicing. While you should wait for the bread to firm up in the cooling process, slather this bread with butter while it's still warm is a great treat.

The bread has almost a sourdough texture and flavor. It is seriously good. Light, great crumb and chewy crust. My perfect bread.

Now, to find more of her recipes!

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 


Homemade Pasta and 2017 in Review

If the only thing that happened in 2017 was political, I'd simply kill myself and get it over with. Having that man become President has been painful. Watching the travesties coming out of Congress have been worse - and that's saying a lot. Just when you knew they couldn't possibly get any lower - they did. And they blatantly continue to lower the bar of decency to levels unseen since Caligula.

Yeah... politically, it's been a rough year.

But if you pull politics out of the equation - and I really do have to now and again to keep my sanity - some really fun things happened this year!

Victor retired! How sweet that has been for him. I'm there in six months - can't wait! We spent close to two glorious weeks with siblings and spouses in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and saw another sister and her two daughters in New York City for her birthday. We saw Bette Midler in Hello Dolly. And I wrote 131 Blog posts.

Food was a highlight in 2017 - and every other year since Year One. I foresee it being in the center of 2018, as well - especially since I'll be able to shop anywhere I want whenever I want, and make things when I want and not try to just squeeze something in half-assed because I have to be somewhere in an hour. Retirement is going to really see me in the kitchen! I see a lot more canning and creative label-making. The pepper sauce was an eye-opener for me, as was the Pistachio Liqueur. I need to make more of this stuff!

Retirement was good for Victor in the culinary end of things, too. He's been able to spend more time creating and it's been great having dinner waiting for me when I get home.

Today, he created homemade pasta in a crab sauce while I baked bread and a Lemon Polenta Cake. I first made this cake in December 2010 and then waited 3 1/2 years to make it again - stating I wasn't going to wait 3 1/2 years to make it, again. I waited 3 1/2 years to make it, again. That, of course, merely proves that there are so many good things to make, there's no sense constantly repeating yourself!

We start with the Tagliatelle... Homemade pasta is where Victor really shines. It's just unbelievably good.

Tagliatele

  • 2 cups flour (we use Tipo "00")
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 tbsp cold water
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and oil to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.

Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.

Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.

Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.

With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons.

Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.

To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.

It was flippin' awesome! The sauce was sauteed pancetta, garlic, a bit of tomato paste, white wine, crab, crushed red pepper, parmesan cheese, and oregano - with fresh basil and more cheese on top. It was a wing-it recipe of the highest caliber. Just flippin' awesome!

Then we have the bread. It's a take on my most favorite Pugliese from Carol Field.

I made three smaller loaves - one round and two baguettes. It's a crusty bread with a slightly sour crumb. As I said, it's a favorite. I always make half this recipe - and it still makes a lot of bread!

Pane Pugliese

  • 1 packet dry yeast (or 1/2 package fresh yeast)
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3 cups water; room temp
  • 1 cup biga
  • 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp salt

Proof the yeast in the warm water. Add 1 1/2 c water and the biga, mix till blended. Add flour and salt, mix till dough comes together and pulls off the sides of the bowl. Knead 3-5 minutes in a mixer, longer by hand. Dough will be very soft and elastic. Let rise about 3 hours, shape into 2 small round loaves or 1 big flattish one. If you have baking stones, place loaves on baking peel or on baking sheets sprinkled corn meal. Let rise about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 450°, and 10 minutes before baking flour the loaf tops and dimple them with your fingers. Bake 50-60 minutes for big loaves, 30-35 minutes for small. Tap the loaves to test for doneness (hollow=done) and cool on a rack.

Biga

  • 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1/10 package fresh yeast)
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1 1/4 cup water (room temperature)
  • 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy – about 10 minutes.  Stir in the remaining water and then the flour, one cup at a time.

Mix with the paddle attachment on the mixer at the lowest speed about 2 minutes.

Remove to a slightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at cool room temperature for 6 to 24 hours.  The starter will triple in volume and still be wet and sticky when ready.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

This bread makes great sandwiches, excellent toast, and sops up sauce just like a good bread should.

Finishing the meal - and the year - is Lemon Polenta Cake. Making something three times in 7 years isn't bad, for me.

Lemon Polenta Cake

adapted from Nigella Lawson

Cake:

  • 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
  • 1 cup superfine sugar
  • 2 cups almond meal
  • 3/4 cup fine polenta or cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 eggs
  • Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)

Syrup:

  • Juice 2 lemons
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with butter.

Beat the butter and sugar till light.

Mix together the nut meal, polenta and baking powder, and add a bit to the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.

Beat in the lemon zest and spread the mixture into the pan and bake for about 35 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean and the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.

For the syrup:

Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester and pour the warm syrup over the cake. Leave to cool in the pan before placing it on a cake plate.

Moist, lemony, great texture... The question is... will I wait another 3 1/2 years before making it, again?!?

Probably.

2017 is drawing to a close and 2018 is a mere few hours away. And since the weather outside is not conducive to frolicking, we'll be indoors.

While I worked more New Years Eve's than I had off in my younger years, I did get to First Night in Boston a couple of times. A flask of Brandy helped to keep the chill to a minimum back in those days. Spending New Years Day 1973 in the Gulf of Tonkin drinking homemade apple wine during an unrep and getting caught. The Hyatt Lake Tahoe NYE 1978 and glasses being thrown through the casino in the general direction of the huge lobby fireplace... Getting guilted into flying to Philadelphia from San Francisco on Y2K - in an empty plane - because Victor's mother "won't be here for the next millennium."

And on and on and on...

I'm liking the quiet ones now, but I'm not ruling anything out... we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Here's to a great year for all of us and especially at the ballot box on Tuesday, November 6th. Vote these bastards out of office before there are no tomorrows left for any of us.

 

 

 

 


Creamy Soup and Crusty Rolls

Victor made a great batch of soup, yesterday, whilst I was at work. One of those perfect surprises after a long shift. We had broccoli and cauliflower in the 'fridge that was needing some attention, so he threw it in a pot and made it all hot.

More or less.

Soup making is a bit more involved than that - but not by much. It's a quick and easy way to use up odds and ends in the 'fridge or cupboards that just won't make it, otherwise. Just about anything can go into the pot - and around here, it usually does.

His creamy soups - butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, et al - are all dairy-free. He gets the creaminess from pureeing a can of beans along with whatever vegetables he's added to the pot. And he's a blender blender. I use the immersion blender. He breaks out the Real McCoy.

No amounts, since it's a clean-out-the-refrigerator soup. Use what you have, add or delete as you see fit.

And while I did say it's dairy free, he will often stir in a pat of butter at the end just because...

Creamy Broccoli Soup

  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Canned Butter Beans
  • Chicken Broth
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Cayenne Pepper

Saute onion and garlic. Add broccoli and cauliflower, broth, and beans. Bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are pretty much over-cooked.

Cool, and then blend via your favorite blending method. Be really careful if you use a blender. I've had to clean a few ceilings in my time.

Check for seasoning and add salt, pepper, and a bit of heat - cayenne works well.

Stir in a pat or two of butter, if desired.

It really was good - and there's enough for lunch, tomorrow!

Also really good were French Rolls via Martha Stewart.

Bread in it's most basic form, is nothing more than flour, water, salt, and yeast. But how those four simple items are put together can be as varied as varied can be.

These small rolls are a case in point.

These start their journey into gastronomic delight with an overnight starter. Flour, water, and a pinch of yeast, in a bowl, covered, on the counter overnight. The following day, more water, flour, yeast, and salt are added. Several risings, foldings, shapings and the final baking take place over a few hours. It's mostly unattended time.

Martha's Recipe.

The dough is wet and sticky, but follow Martha's advice and do not add more flour. You need patience and a bit of technique but the end result is a crusty - really crusty - shell with a tender interior. A perfect French bread.

I used half of the recipe for rolls. These would be perfect as sandwich rolls with hard salami and mustard - the sandwich of my youth!

I'm going to make a baguette with the other half, tomorrow.

Another great meal...


Butternut Squash Soup & Flatbread

When is a pizza not a pizza? Why, when it's a flatbread, of course!

It seems that flatbread is the new pizza - at least by restaurant definition. Pizza has traditions assigned to it - and the negative dietary connotations. Flatbread, on the other hand, can evoke anything the chef desires. With a minimum of good-quality toppings, they can outshine their pizza parlour cousins while commanding dinnerhouse prices. Not to mention appearing more nutritionally sound.

I made pizza for years. Hand-spun rounds of cheesy, saucy perfection. And while I'm sure most of you will be surprised, I was quite opinionated on what should be allowed on a pizza. I'd never in a million years put seafood other than anchovies on a pizza - but Victor had lobster on a flatbread last week that was out-of-this world fantastic. Ham and pineapple was - and is - a sacrilege. But on a flatbread?!? Eh... why not?!?

It seems that I can continue to be opinionated and still allow for new thoughts and ideas. What a concept.

I use my old standby pizza dough recipe - it's pretty much the recipe I was was making at Pirro's back in the '60s scaled back for home use. I have a La Cucina Italiana recipe that calls for a 2-day cold rise that is really good, but this one is fairly classic and works in no time.

Pizza Dough

  • 1 tsp yeast
  • 1 cup barely-warm water
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Mix yeast with water and let proof a  few minutes.  Add flour and salt and (preferably) knead for five or six minutes with a mixer using a dough hook.  Slowly add olive oil while machine is running, mixing well and incorporating everything.  You should end up with a soft, smooth, and  elastic dough.  If mixing by hand, add oil with water and knead about 10 minutes.

Roll into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl.  Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise until double in size – about an hour and a half.

Form into two balls and allow to rise, again.

Form the proofed dough into nice, round pizzas (I still hand-spin them but use whatever method works best for you.)

Top with your favorite sauce and topping and bake in a 450° oven until done.

While I generally like a 2-rise dough, you can form into balls and go for one rise, form, top, and bake - as I did with the flatbread, below.

I spread the dough with homemade Fig and Caramelized Onion Jam and then topped that with prosciutto and a sprinkling of cheese. Into a 450°F oven with a pizza stone for 20 minutes.

And then there was soup...

Butternut squash soup may be one of my all-time favorites. Victor makes such a great version that I don't even bother, anymore. I really do love a man who can cook!

The soup really is simple - but it packs a wallop of flavor. It was especially true with this batch because we knew Nonna wasn't going to be here for dinner - Victor added a couple of hot peppers from the garden.

Butternut Squash Soup

  • 1 butternut squash - peeled and cubed
  • 2 qts chicken broth
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2 hot peppers
  • 1 can cannellini beans, drained
  • S&P
  • garlic powder

Saute onion and peppers in a pat of butter. Add squash, broth, beans, garlic powder, and S&P, to taste. Simmer until squash is falling apart-tender.

Puree with an immersion blender until completely smooth.

Serve with sour cream and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.

The beans add a creaminess to the soup without having to add cream. You can also make it with olive oil and water or vegetable broth to make it completely vegan.

No matter how you do it, it's going to come out great!


Pogaca Rolls

I love it when a new cooking magazine arrives and I immediately see a recipe I immediately want to make. Fine Cooking did not disappoint.

Pogaca rolls - pronounced po-ah-cha - hail from Turkey. We know my penchant for international foods, so these fit right in. I truly believe we could really learn a lot from one another if we just sat down and started eating different foods from different cultures.

My first recollection of Turkey comes from the Four Lads tune Istanbul (not Constantinople) recorded in 1953. There was also Bonomo's Turkish Taffy which is neither Turkish nor taffy - but what did I know? And, of course, Agatha Christie and Murder on the Orient Express - a story that drew a vivid picture of the foreign and exotic city as seen through the eyes of the colonizing British.

It's really not surprising that our views of different cultures are so skewed...

Pogaca rolls are extremely versatile and can be eaten with any meal. The fillings can be as varied and exotic - or simple and plain - as you wish. They can also be sweet or savory, depending upon your mood or time of day for eating them. I decided on a cheese filling based upon one of the offerings in the magazine. It called for simple feta and parsley. I went for chevre, queso fresco, chives, and parsley because that's what I had in the house.

Pogaca Rolls

adapted from Fine Cooking magazine

Dough:

  • 1 cup whole milk, warmed to 105°F
  • 1 tbsp active dry yeast
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup neutral oil
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp kosher salt

Filling:

  • 4 oz chevre
  • 4 oz queso fresco
  • 1 tbsp chives
  • 1 tbsp parsley

Combine warm milk with yeast and sugar in a mixer bowl. Proof about 5 minutes.

Add egg and oil and mix.

Add flour and mix on medium low speed about 10 minutes or until silky smooth.

Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured board and shape into a ball. Place in a lightly-oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Shaping and Forming:

Lightly flour a work surface, and turn the dough onto it. Deflate the dough, and divide into 13 - 15 pieces, about 2 oz. each.

Roll each piece into a ball, cover, and let rise again for about 30 minutes.

Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Lightly flour a work surface.

Roll or press a dough ball into a 5-inch circle.

Starting from the edge and heading toward the center, cut four evenly spaced slits, each about 1-1/2 inches long, into the circle.

Place about 1-1/2 tablespoons of the filling in the center. Wrap one quarter of the dough around the filling; the dough will partially cover but not fully enclose the filling. As you wrap, fold ¼ inch of the top of the dough edge back to form an open petal.

Fold the dough quarter opposite the first quarter around the filling and fold back the top to form an open petal. Secure the dough on the bottom with a pinch.

Wrap and fold a third quarter in the same manner.

Then, when folding the final quarter over, tuck the edges underneath the rose, and pinch to secure.

Place on the prepared baking sheet leaving at least 2 inches between the rolls. Let rise at room temperature, until almost doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Whisk the egg and milk. Lightly brush the dough with the egg wash.

Bake, swapping and rotating the pans about halfway through, until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

One thing I noted was I wasn't careful enough in pinching the ends of the petals. You really do need to be firm with this step - some of the rolls really did come apart. It's not changing the flavor, but esthetically, they could be more flower-like.

The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of salt. I made it that way but think they would be better with just one.

But they are light, really flavorful, and with just enough cheese filling to flavor but not overwhelm.

I see other shapes and fillings in our future!


Shrimp, Veggies, and a Loaf of Bread

There's more food coming into the house right now than is going out. Time for some creative cooking!

Clearing freezer space is pretty important for the next few months. We don't - intentionally - have a freezer in the basement. Having the one freezer attached to the refrigerator keeps me focused on what I have and what needs to be used. It's bad enough that I can pack that sucker to within an inch of its life. I can't even imagine the type of frozen-food-packrat I'd be with another freezer. It's a frightening thought, indeed.

This is better. It makes me think. Two of my mom's continual adages to me were look it up and figure it out. Looking things up has gotten infinitely easier with the advent of the world wide web. And even easier easier with a handheld device capable of searching the world in nanoseconds.  I don't use my phone for phone calls. I use it to look up things just like mom told me to do. It sure beats the World Book Encyclopedia!

Figuring things out was something I needed to learn at a very young age. Rumor has it I was a pretty impatient little tyke. I remember my Aunt Katherine - she was my great uncle Tommy's mother, born in Boonton, New Jersey in 1882 - telling me "when a string is in a knot, patience will untie it."  To this day, when I start getting impatient about figuring something out, that's my cue to stop, sit back, and look anew. Aunt Katherine was the impetus for a couple of firsts for me... Hers was the first funeral I went to in 1956, and going to her funeral was the first time I flew in an airplane - from Bakersfield to Sacramento on United Airlines. The things we remember...

But back to figuring things out...

I planned a clean-out-the-refrigerator dinner just to give me room for things to come. It's time for a good cleaning and cleaning is always easier when there's less stuff to move around. Victor is great at utilizing leftovers and such for lunches, snacks, and his mom's dinners on the nights I work late, so after tonight, it's looking properly barren.

I pulled a bag of shrimp out of the freezer and emptied the vegetable bin of a partial head of cauliflower, a large watermelon radish, green and yellow zucchinis, the fresh purple beans, onions, garlic, and artichoke hearts I had opened yesterday and then then changed my mind about using. And asiago cheese. And lots of fresh herbs from the garden. And white wine.

It really was a quick throw-together dinner - I cooked the veggies on top of the stove and when they were about 2/3 done, I stuck the pan under the broiler to give them some color. I added the shrimp, set it back in for a few minutes, and then stirred in the herbs and the cheese.

Perfection.

And while all that was going on, I made a loaf of bread.

The bread should have been more of a rounded loaf, but I got carried away doing a website and forgot about it outside in Mother Nature's Proofing Box. It really rose huge. I slid it into the oven and it collapsed - but came back as a thin wide loaf. It is really excellent!

It's a take on the Pistachio Bread I made a while ago.

So... Veggies cleared out, refrigerator cleaned, freezer getting emptied for fruits of the garden, fresh bread and another storm hitting right now. That means more green tomatoes down, tomorrow...

Maybe time for a Green Tomato Pie.

 

 


Baking with Beer

It's one of those perfect days for Mother Nature's Outdoor Proofing Box. Definitely time to bake some bread.

I don't make a lot of basic sandwich loaf breads - I really do have a penchant for more rustic Italian breads - but every now and again I need to get the bread pans out of the cupboard and see if I can still throw together a tender loaf or two.

I have to admit I succeeded, today!

I had a fun conversation with a woman at work the other day about baking bread. She loves it - and will only use her bread machine for the dough. She bakes her bread in the oven, but uses the machine to make the dough. She just finds it easier.

My thought is more power to ya if you're going to make fresh bread. It doesn't matter how you make the dough - by hand or by any number of machines - as long as you make it!

My absolutes and opinions on food and cooking have changed so much over the years, it's sometimes hard to keep track. I remember years ago when a product called Sta-White or some such thing came out. It was to keep lettuce and potatoes and such from browning after cutting. Salad could last on a salad bar for days! It was a miracle! And then, one day, I realized salad staying fresh-looking on a salad bar for days probably wasn't really a good idea. I went through my why make hollandaise sauce when you could buy a can of Aunt Penny's?!?  phase, and still have internal arguments with myself about charcoal vs gas grill. Gas grill is winning, right now. I'm too lazy to plan the charcoal cooking, right now, but I really do like the taste. Maybe after I retire...

For years it was just part of the job to keep up with the fads. Now, I'm heading back towards the basics. I'm over putting together a dinner plate with tweezers. I want simpler meals. Lots of flavor - just not neurotic.

Today's bread started out as a recipe from my Mom's cook book. She really was quite the baker in her day and was never afraid to take a recipe and make it her own.

After looking through the cabinets at ingredients, I finally settled on a Molasses Oatmeal Bread. It's an interesting recipe because the first rise is two hours in the refrigerator. So much for my outdoor proofing box. But the second rise outside was perfect.

I more or less followed the recipe, but the cup and a half of water became a 12oz beer - Avalanche Amber Ale - and the shortening became butter. I pretty much never have shortening in the house and we have a few beers sitting around that neither of us are going to drink... Time to use them up!

The biggest difference in making bread pan loaves and rustic loaves is the amount of liquid. The rustic loaves tend to be a bit drier and I have to resist adding more flour. You do need to play with just about any bread recipe a bit. There are a score of factors in play that affect a loaf - from temperature and humidity to moisture content of the flour - and you learn to feel different doughs and see what they need. And you need to know when not to listen to yourself!

The end result, today, was a damned good loaf. It's properly soft, the crust has just the right amount of chew, and it's going to work for dinner tonight, breakfast toast, and a sandwich for lunch.

The perfect all-purpose bread.


Holiday Hamburgers

Baking bread on hot, muggy days may seem counter-intuitive, but Mother Nature's Outdoor Proofing Box is just too good to pass up. I get such a great rise from the dough, it's worth having the air conditioning on.

I have been making this particular bread since first seeing the recipe in Bon Appetit a few years ago. I've made it as dinner rolls and pull-apart bread loaves. This is my first foray into burger buns - and from the taste of things, it shan't be my last.

It's a bit different in its preparation, in that you start off by cooking a bit of flour and water together. I know there's a scientific reason for doing so, but I'm dragging my food-chemistry days behind me. Suffice to say that the butter, eggs, and heavy cream make for a very tender crumb.

Milk Bead

Kindred, Davidson, NC

Ingredients

  • 5⅓ cups bread flour, divided
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ⅓ cup mild honey
  • 3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
  • 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
  • Flaky sea salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or other toppings, optional

Preparation

Cook ⅓ cup flour and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a thick paste forms (almost like a roux but looser), about 5 minutes. Add cream and honey and cook, whisking to blend, until honey dissolves. Cool to no more than 110°F.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and add milk powder, yeast, kosher salt, 2 eggs, and 5 cups flour. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes.

Add butter, a piece at a time, fully incorporating into dough before adding the next piece, until dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 4 minutes.

Coat a large bowl with nonstick spray and transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

If making rolls, lightly coat a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan with nonstick spray. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Divide each piece into 4 smaller pieces (you should have 24 total). They don’t need to be exact; just eyeball it. Place 4 pieces of dough side-by-side in each muffin cup.

If making a loaf, lightly coat a 9x5" loaf pan with nonstick spray. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and divide into 6 pieces. Nestle pieces side-by-side to create 2 rows down length of pan.

If making split-top buns, lightly coat two 13x9" baking dishes with nonstick spray. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape each into a 4"-long log. Place 6 logs in a row down length of each dish.
Let shaped dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size (dough should be just puffing over top of pan), about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. Beat remaining egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl to blend. Brush top of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt or other seasonings, if desired. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until bread is deep golden brown, starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, and is baked through, 25–35 minutes for rolls, 50–60 minutes for loaf, or 30–40 minutes for buns. If making buns, slice each bun down the middle deep enough to create a split-top.

Let milk bread cool slightly in pan on a wire rack before turning out; let cool completely.

The burgers were basic ground beef with bacon, red onion, lettuce, pickles, mayonnaise, catsup, and roquefort cheese, along with a generous helping of Mom's Potato Salad.

The Holiday Weekend is off to a good start!