IL PANE DE VINCENZA

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Funny how things work… I’ve been baking sourdough for 17 years, and all of a sudden I stumble on something new to me, something that mesmerizes me and makes me want to drop everything and give it a try. I stumbled by complete accident on the blog of Vincenza, which is written in Italian, but thanks to my Portuguese speaking, I can navigate without too many issues. Vincenza is a fantastic baker, from cakes to bread and macarons. Photography is also one of her hobbies, and her site definitely reveals that right away. This is my first attempt at making one of her recipes (Semolina Bread with Turmeric Lattice). I consider it a work in progress, as some improvement is needed with my handling of the lattice, but isn’t that what life is all about? Setting goals and having fun trying to reach them?

SEMOLINA SOURDOUGH WITH TURMERIC LATTICE
(from La Torte de Cenzy’s blog)

for the main dough:
320 g of double milled semolina flour
80 g bread flour
80 g sourdough starter at 100% hydration
280 g water
8 g salt
for the lattice:
300 g bread flour
150 g water
30 g sourdough starter
5 g salt
Turmeric to taste (I used 1/2 tsp)

In the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer add the waters flours, and sourdough starter, mix with the dough hook until the flour is incorporated in the water. Let the dough rest for 1 hour, covered.

Sprinkle the salt over the surface and knead until very smooth, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a slightly oiled bowl and make a set of folds. Allow the dough to bulk ferment for a total of 4 hours, folding the dough every 30 minutes for the first two hours. If the dough is too loose, give it another one or set of folds during that period.

Shape the dough as a batard and place it in a banneton with the seam up. Leave it at room temperature for 1 hour. At this point, make the turmeric dough by mixing all ingredients by hand in a bowl. Knead it very well to make it elastic and pliable, then cover the dough and keep it at room temperature overnight.

The following morning, roll out the turmeric dough and with a wheel make many strips that will have to be coupled two by two and with them form a basket weaving placed on a sheet of parchment paper. Cut flowers with a cookie cutter, making sure to flour the cutter well.

Turn on the oven to 450F.

Remove the main dough from the fridge, turn it over a sheet of parchment paper, so that the smooth side is up. ake the string from the fridge and turn it over on a sheet of parchment paper, spray it with a little water and cover the bread, turning the prepared lattice over on it and making it adhere well. Glue the flowers with a bit of water on one edge of the bread. Cut a deep incision along the entire side of the bread, off-center and immediately place it in a Dutch oven, cover, bake for 30 minutes, remove the cover and bake for additional 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I was a little scared of making the lattice, but it was not bad at all. I used my roller cutter fully closed, so that the strips would be as narrow as it allows, but you can always use a ruler and cut it with a pizza cutter gadget. Make sure to flour the surface so that the rolling action will separate the strands efficiently. Make the lattice using sets of two strips, and the hard part is done. Well, maybe not quite. The toughest thing to me was adding it to the bread without abusing them (dough and lattice) too much. I did not do a good job on my first attempt, and the bread collapsed quite a bit due to my handling.

You can see it is lopsided and a bit deflated. Still, I am thrilled that somehow the lattice looked ok and the bread turned out delicious!

A few days later I used a similar method with a red dough (I used food gel color, because I was hoping for a real bright red, but feel free to go for natural agents like beet or sweet potato powder). I decided to proof the lattice with the main dough, and the result is totally different, it gets baked flat instead of raised.

I prefer the first look, but I will need to tweak the way I handle the lattice to avoid disturbing the dough too much. Still, the technique has so much potential, I am thinking braids could be fun to try too… So many breads, so little time!

Vincenza, thank you so much for your advice and help as I tried to mimic your gorgeous bake!

ONE YEAR AGO: Gruyere Cheese Biscuits

TWO YEARS AGO: Incredibly Simple Korean Chicken Thighs

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25Jun2024

FOR THE LOVE OF GAUDI

Posted in Breads by sallybr

We just came back from a 2-week trip to France and my first time ever in Spain. We drove from Avignon to Arles and then to Barcelona and stayed there for a few days enjoying the company of great friends… Although I was familiar with Gaudi’s work, visiting Basilica de la Sagrada Familia and Casa Batlló were two experiences I will never ever forget. Today I celebrate Gaudi with a little sourdough bread.

GAUDI-LOVE SOURDOUGH BREAD
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

Basic formula:
475g bread flour
25g rye flour
10g salt
1/2 tsp Baharat spice mix
75g sourdough starter at 100% hydration
350g water

Make the levain mixture about 6 hours before you plan to mix the dough. It should be very bubbly and active.

When you are ready to make the final dough, place the water in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer and dissolve the starter in it, mixing with a spatula briefly, then add the two types of flour, salt and spices. Turn the mixer on with the hook attachment and knead the dough for 4 minutes at low-speed all the time. You will notice the dough will gain quite a bit of structure even with just 4 minutes in the mixer. Remove from the machine, and transfer to a container lightly coated with oil, cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow it to ferment for 4 hours, folding every 45 minutes or so. Because the dough is already a bit developed from the initial time in the mixer, you should get very good structure after 3 and a half hours, or even sooner than that.

After four hours bulk fermentation, shape the dough as a ball, and place, seam side up, in a lightly floured banetton. Leave at room temperature one hour, and then place in the fridge overnight, from 8 to 12 hours.

Next morning, heat the oven to 450F.

Place a parchment paper on top of the dough, a flat baking sheet, and invert the dough, flipping it out of the banneton. Slightly wet the top of the dough and place your wafer paper decoration on top. Flour the surface and score a little pattern with a razor blade.

Bake at 450F for 45 minutes, preferably covered for the first 30 minutes to retain steam. Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The picture above shows the inspiration for the design, artwork he included as a decorative panel above a door in Casa Batlló. I used wafer paper and food safe pens in metallic tones to make a similar design. I hope Gaudi would not get too mad at me…

After baking, I thought the colors of the design faded slightly, so I painted them again once the bread cooled completely.

Wafer paper is fast becoming my favorite way to decorate bread… To see a couple of examples from my past, click here (butterfly) and here (polka dot).

ONE YEAR AGO: Hello There, Cupcake!

TWO YEARS AGO: Two Deliciously Refreshing Cucumber Salads

THREE YEARS AGO: Grilled Shrimp with Parsley Oil over Black Rice Noodles

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24Oct2023

IT’S SOURDOUGH, WITCHES!

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Once again I put a little wafer paper to work for some bewitched sourdough bread. I used just a basic recipe with my default method described many times in this blog of mine (click here). I lowered the hydration a bit to try to control the expansion of the design (for 500g total flour I used 335g water).

I was inspired by a Halloween bread from Kelsey (@3catsandapig) to come up with my design.
She is an incredibly talented bread artist.

It all starts with cutting the wafer paper in the spider web shape, and painting a little witch’s design (I used a stencil and air-brushing). Make sure to cut the wafer paper shape twice, as you will use one of them to cover the dough as you either rub cocoa powder or air-brush with black all over. Then you will peel that off and place a clean one on that spot, proceeding with the scoring around it.

After covering the surface with black, score the design with a razor blade, and then immediately spray some orange (or red) air brush color in the cuts. That will give a nice contrast, but of course you can omit this step.

Bake the bread normally, I do 30 minutes with the lid on, and 15 minutes without the lid. Allow it to cool completely before slicing.

I find that air-brushing the whole surface makes the crust a bit soft, so depending on how you like your bread, rubbing with cocoa powder or charcoal might be better. What I dislike about those options is that they rub off on your hands as you cut the bread later. But it is not a big deal, really.

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TWO YEARS AGO: Black Tahini Shortbread Cookies

THREE YEARS AGO: A Fruitful Trio (of Macarons)

FOUR YEARS AGO: Halloween Entremet Cake

FIVE YEARS AGO: Pork with Prunes, Olives and Capers

SIX YEARS AGO: Kansas Corn Chowder

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Impossibly Cute Bacon and Egg Cups

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Pulling Under Pressure

NINE YEARS AGO: Cooking Sous-vide: Two takes on Chicken Thighs

TEN YEARS AGO: Miso Soup: A Japanese Classic

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: On my desk

TWELVE YEARS AGO: A must-make veggie puree

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FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Brazilian Pão de Queijo

9Oct2023

POLKA DOT LOVE SOURDOUGH

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Once again I played with wafer paper to decorate sourdough bread, but this time I coupled it with a few strings to generate a cute shape, often used to turn the bread into pumpkin shape, but I opted for a more romantic outcome… Nothing personal against pumpkins, I do love them and honored them in the past (click here).

Start by cutting wafer paper in small heart shapes…. You will need three, and three long strings that you should rub very lightly with oil to facilitate removing later.

Place the strings equally spaced over the proofed dough, flip the dough over parchment paper, and tie the strings on the top, trying to hit the center as closely as possible. Gently insert the paper, coat the surface with flour and score the bread in any design you like. I used the Sonic blade and small scissors, as I often do.

Bake as you normally do, I keep the lid for 30 minutes and remove it for a final 15 minutes, all at 450F. Remove the strings, and allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.

You can use different patterns for the small hearts, or cut plain wafer paper and paint it yourself.

It is really amazing how well the colors in the wafer paper stay pretty much unchanged with baking, much better than air-brushed or gel colors. I hope you give this technique a try and have as much fun with it as I am having…

ONE YEAR AGO: Plum Sorbet

TWO YEARS AGO: Grilled Chicken with Sesame Roasted Carrots

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5Jul2023

SONIC BLADE SOURDOUGH SCORING

Posted in Breads by sallybr

I am so excited to share this new method with you! Perhaps you’ve noticed that I talked about a little mysterious gadget in my previous post, and today I explain what it does. It is an adaptor for a razor blade to be used with a Sonic type toothbrush, You need to have the right model, in which the head is pushed into the toothbrush, not screwed in. I’ve had a Phillips Sonic toothbrush for many many years and was quite intrigued about using it to slash sourdough. Works like a dream. As one user described, “it is like having one of those lightsabers from Star Wars”. It does feel very smooth and efficiently goes through the surface without ripping the dough. You can read all about it here. Nicola, the person behind the invention is super nice and responsive, plus she is amazing at making all sorts of designs on her bread, available on youtube or IG. The website I linked has all the info to her social media.

Here is a little video of one of my recent adventures with Sonic scoring… It is 8X faster than real time. I followed one of the designs by Nicola to make this particular one.

TO ORDER YOUR SONIC BLADE ADAPTER, CLICK HERE

As to the breads, I will share just one recipe because I used olive oil infused with fresh oregano to flavor it, and a little bit of dry oregano in the dough. It turned out absolutely delicious.

FRESH OREGANO SOURDOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

1/3 cup olive oil
fresh oregano leaves, a big bunch
475 g bread flour
25 g spelt flour
60-70 g sourdough starter at 100% hydration
340 g water
10 g salt
1 tsp dried oregano

Make the infused olive oil by heating the oil in a small saucepan, adding the fresh oregano and simmering for a minute or so. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and let the oil sit for half an hour. Pass through a sieve to remove the leaves, pressing them well. Reserve the oil, allowing it to cool to room temperature or barely warm.

Mix all the ingredients and 2 to 3 tablespoons of the infused oil in a KitchenAid type mixer fitted with the dough hook.

Turn the mixer on with the hook attachment and knead the dough for 4 and a half minutes at low-speed all the time. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour, you want the dough to start clearing the sides of the bowl, but still be sticky at the bottom.

Remove from the machine, and transfer to a container lightly coated with oil. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow it to ferment for 4 hours, folding every 45 minutes or so. After four hours bulk fermentation, shape the dough as a ball, and place, seam side up, in a lightly floured banetton. Leave at room temperature one hour, and then place in the fridge overnight, from 8 to 12 hours.

Next morning, heat the oven to 450F. Invert the dough over parchment paper, rub gently tapioca flour on the surface. Score with the pattern of your choice and bake at 450F for 45 minutes, preferably covered for the first 30 minutes to retain steam. Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

It is quite amazing to use that blade, you just need to be careful when placing it in the adaptor, for obvious reasons, it is sharp, very sharp. I like to add the adaptor to the toothbrush first, and then screw the bade in, because I find it safer to do it this way.