BBA#26: POOLISH BAGUETTES

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

These days the the wonderful aroma of bread is wafting through the Bewitching Kitchen … For those who don’t know about “The BBA Challenge“, a few months ago Nicole, of “Pinch My Salt“, decided to bake every bread from Peter Reinhart’s book “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice“, and sent out a virtual invitation to anyone interested in joining her. It involves forty-three breads in all, made in the order that they appear in the book. Over two hundred people accepted the challenge, including me. It’s been a ton of fun so far, with ups and downs, successes and failures.

Here we are, at recipe number 26: Poolish Baguettes

Poolish is a soft mixture of flour, water and yeast that ferments overnight (or longer) and then gets incorporated into a bread dough. In this recipe, the dough contains both white and whole wheat flour, but the whole wheat is first sifted to remove some of the bran. It’s an interesting method, and here’s all the bran left behind after sifting a few ounces of flour:

Reinhart’s recipe calls for kneading the dough. I prefer folding instead of kneading, so that’s what I did: 3 folding cycles during the initial 2 hours of fermentation. After cutting the dough into three pieces, I shaped each one as a baguette. After two more hours rising, the baguettes were slashed with sharp razor blade, and placed in the oven.

Notice how bubbly the dough was…

Even though my slashing skills still need improvement, this time my shaping wasn’t too bad. There are many online videos showing how to shape a baguette; maybe one day if I get really good at it… I’ll post my own 😉

In the meantime, you can watch a particularly instructive video here….

These baguettes were delicious! I’d probably reduce the proportion of whole wheat in the dough, but this recipe is already a winner for me and my husband.

30Oct2009

BBA#25: PIZZA NAPOLETANA

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

I was looking forward to this recipe, because for years I’ve been making pizza dough from a recipe published in Fine Cooking; the BBA Challenge gave me the impetus to try something different. Interestingly enough, my usual method is similar to Peter Reinhart’s, but it takes a little less olive oil, and is made in seconds (literally) in the food processor.

Reinhart’s recipe uses a regular mixer (or hand kneading) to make the dough, that then goes into the refrigerator for 1 day. Two hours before making the pizza, he brings the balls of dough to room temperature. In the book you’ll see a photo of Peter himself throwing the dough up in the air like a pro. I was looking forward to giving it a try, but my dough was just too uncooperative. As I prefer to avoid wearing the food that I’m cooking, I stretched it with my hands instead. 😉

Without further ado, some pictures of my pizza adventure!

The dough is supposed to stick to the bottom of the mixer, never clearing it completely…

I made four balls of dough with the full recipe….

And after spending the night in the fridge, they came back for a final rise at room temperature… very soft and bubbly-looking…

Some of the ingredients we chose: mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, sliced ham, fresh basil… plus the usual suspects (homemade tomato sauce & mozzarella cheese)

Ready for the oven, a mushroom and black olive concoction….

The pizza was good, but both me and my resident food critic prefer the Fine Cooking recipe, which I’ll describe on my blog in the near future.

I should point out that most of the bakers loved this recipe, and you can check two of them at these links:

for “The Other Side of Fifty”, click here….

For TxFarmer and her take on a pine nuts pizza, click here….

Twenty-five recipes down, only eighteen to go!

26Oct2009

YES, WE BAKED!

Posted in Breads, General by sallybr

Remember World Bread Day? You can see the breads baked all over the world by going to Zorra’s website. They are all organized by countries, in four different groups. Lots of wonderful loaves of bread!

Check it out here….

25Oct2009

BBA#24: PANETTONE

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

Here we are, at bread number 24 of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, started by Nicole from “Pinch My Salt“. Read all about it here.

Panettone, the traditional Italian fruit bread, is very popular in two of my former homes, Sao Paulo and Paris, during Christmas. I wish I could say it brings back fond memories of childhood, but the truth is that I never cared for it. In my memory, panettone was a dry, chalky bread with hardened pieces of fruit in the crumb. What can I say? I was a difficult child. 😉

Nevertheless, Peter Reinhart says that this recipe, which is more involved than most, produces the best panettone in the world. I was a bit skeptical, but gathered up all the ingredients and hoped for the best.

Was it good? Oh, YESSS! The best in the world? Well, I haven’t sampled that many, but my husband considers himself a panettone connoisseur, and he and I agreed that this was the best we’ve ever had, by far. The crumb was moist and velvety, with the right amount of fruit and sweetness, plus that unmistakable hint of “fiori di Sicilia“, the extract that gives panettone its characteristic holiday flavor. It was impossible to eat just a single slice of this bread…and we shouldn’t have brought out the butter…in a few minutes nearly half the loaf was gone! The other half will make some graduate students very happy tomorrow!

This is it! The panettone for this year’s holidays!

The recipe needs advance planning, as it uses a wild yeast sponge (mixture of water, flour, and a sourdough starter) as part of the final dough. The fruits soak in rum, orange and fiore di sicilia extracts overnight. The process went smoothly, my loaf is a little shallow because since I didnn’t have a 6-inch pan, mine was 7.5 inches in diameter.

This is the wild yeast sponge ready to go into the dough….

Dried fruits soaking in rum, orange and fiore de sicilia extracts

The dough smells wonderful from the very beginning….

Ready to go into the oven…

Just out of the oven…

Check out the panettone posts by other bakers following along the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge:

Oggi, from I Can Do That

Mags, from “The Other Side of Fifty”

TxFarmer, from Sina.blog

24Oct2009

BRAZILIAN PAO DE QUEIJO: Love at first bite!

Posted in Appetizers, Brazilian cooking, Breads, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

If you happen to know any Brazilians leaving abroad, ask them to name the five foods that they miss the most. I’m willing to bet that “pao de queijo” (little cheese bread) makes the list. Some might even shed a tear or two thinking about it.

Originally from the beautiful state of Minas Gerais, they are made with a farmer’s type cheese, quite unique (Minas’ cheese, read about it here). Brazilian cheese bread is so popular that nowadays you can buy it in stores all over the country called ‘Casa do Pao de Queijo” (Home of the Cheese Bread), or as a dry mix, in colorful bags available at most grocery stores. I’ve lost track of how many such bags we’ve stuffed in our luggage coming back from annual trips to visit family and friends.

Last year I found a recipe for pao de queijo published by Fer, in her blog Chucrute com Salsicha. She is a Brazilian-American like myself, and she raved about them. When things like pao de queijo are on the line, Brazilians attentively listen to each other… At least three Brazilian bloggers back this recipe. Try it, you’ll love it

BRAZILIAN CHEESE BREAD
(adapted from Fer, original recipe from Neide)

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup farmer’s cheese (see comments)
1 T Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 tsp salt

for topping (optional)
fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
kosher salt

Add all ingredients, except those for the topping, into a blender. Blend very well at full speed, stopping a couple of times to scrape the surface of the blender’s cup, making sure no bits of tapioca starch are left unmixed.

The mixture will be a little thinner than pancake batter. Pour the batter in mini-muffin tins, to no more than 3/4 of their capacity, as shown here. The recipe makes 24 little cheese breads.

Add a little bit of salt and rosemary on top, place in a 400F oven, and cook for 20 minutes.

Most will come out right away without sticking. If some stick slightly, allow them to cool for a few minutes and probe them out gently with the tip of a knife.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: In the original recipe, Neide was trying to mimic little cheese breads she had at a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. She used exclusively Parmigiano cheese in the batter. I’ve made this recipe many times, and now settled on a combination of two cheeses: a melting type, preferably Mexican, and a small amount of Parmigiano to sharpen the taste. Of course, depending on the type of cheese, adjust the salt. In this batch I did not add any rosemary, but please do so, it is perfect with it.

They resemble popovers in texture, but are gluten-free, so folks with gluten allergies can still enjoy them!

Now, allow me to share a couple of photos sent by Mia, a reader of my blog who just made a batch! In her version, the mixture ended up with a firmer texture, so she was able to roll them as little balls, which I must say made them a lot more “authentic-looking”. Awesome job!

Mia, thanks so much for trying one of my favorite Brazilian recipes, and for sending the photos and allowing me to publish them… Now I am craving “pão de queijo” again…..