STIR THE POTS

Multigrain Pizza

More and more people are boycotting carbs for dietary reasons. I'm boycotting stupidity for carbs, as I believe multi-grain doughs - full of carbs - are good for your brain.

My latest pizza adventure, hails the virtue of carbs, with a nod to healthy toppings, as well as a multigrain levain based dough. It's adapted from River Cafe Cookbook, by way of Chez Panisse. One of the pizzas was a simple mix of raw mushrooms, olive oil, parmesan cheese, oregano, sage and a drip or three of truffle oil...perfect for a late summer lunch on a windy weekend day.

 

The toppings, a mixed vegetable meledy of, eggplant, onions, cauliflower, shaved artichoke,garlic, jalapeno, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and drizzle of oil.

Though I am a bit of purist in terms of dough, I didn't mind the wheaty, slighty hippy healthfood aesthetic of this pizza dough. It's kind of a rustic sort of pizza. In the cook book, they roll it out very thin like cracker style. I much prefer some edge on my dough so I can fold and eat with my fingers.

 

Challah Mediterranee

Challah, that bread with a history, a holiday, and most often a very spongy loaf which I detest! Still, maybe it's my Jewish DNA because I still want to give it a try.  I made this version with a more Mediteranean than Ashkanzai flavor; safran, golden raisins, whatever.  

It's designed to hope for a sweet and golden [Jewish] New Year, bringing in some sun in this hybrid version. Since sweet breads are a pain in the neck in rising due to sugar and yeasty issues, I gave in to time constraints and snuck in a pinch of yeast. As my friend Gregoire Michaud told me, don't worry, it's all yeast; wild or commercial.

Upping the ante, I added flavor olive oil rather then just plain grapseed or canola oil, inspired by a similar replacement of it for butter in a recent batch of biscottis.  

Juxtapose this!

Whenever you got a bit of extra dough, why not try a new shape or a different kind of bread....say pizza?

Chad Robertson does it in his Tartine bread book, which I've enjoyed lately, including a jump at his standard sourdough recipe, which is a challenge. No problem, just go back and do it. Then again and again.

Here's a tip, hold back water from the mix. Anyway, aafter whacking off a 200 gram bit of dough from my levain, I set it aside in a ball for dinner. The dough was supple, full of bubbles and had the suppleness and stretch, which is a good omen for a pizza geek like me! It worked. 

Taste wise, I find I prefer a longer rise in the fridge for a bit more acidity, but this dough was light, crisp and went down very quickly with my standard Margharita topping,( tomato, basil, mozzarella). My curiosity is up, as I must try the rye dough next time, maybe some speck and quark with some northern exposure for fall? Or butternut squash with shallots and hazelnuts, truffles?

 

Spelt Croissants

Whether it's pizza or levain, I'm always searching for another  grain to make healtheir  bread or goodies, like croissants. Or just add texture and fragrance by introducing whole grains.  Today's post is dedicated to spelt croissants. I found this formula after having been provoked by the sight of spelt and olive oil croissants at Eataly.

I managed to get these made, folded and shaped in a two day span, between the end of a weekend and work. Though reliant on Google's Italian translation software, I was able to make rudimentary sense of the kitchen language to produce a decent looking product.

The steps and ingredients differ only slightly from classic butter croissants. Such steps include autolysing ("a resting period between the early mixing and kneading phases"), a mix of the whole grain spelt, then mixing it in with a levain and yeasted mix. From there it's  virtually the same procedure in processing the croissants. I hope to  make another batch, maybe adapting or add in more whole grain, to get them just where I want them, namely perfect! Stay tuned...

 

Neighborhood Bakeries

While out food shopping on New York City's Upper Eastside, I stopped by Orwashers Bakery, which was sold to a new owner/head baker, Keith Cohen. In my excitement looking at all the shelves full of declicious looking breads, I snapped an out-of-focus pic of one loaf. Bummer!

They offered samples of spelt bread with raisins and quinoa were full of flavor. I promise to go back. They're hiring too...hmmmm. Anyway,it's nice to see a neighborhood bakery, something our city seems to lack. Yes, there are whole sale operations, but the moms-and-pops can't afford the real estate. It leaves us to rely on sub-par bagged supermarket bread. C'mon New York, pray for the neighborhood bakeries thrive again. Or let me win the loterry and open my own. 

Viennoisserie

There's a famous story about bakers alerting the city of Vienna to Turkish attack years and years ago, using the Ottoman's crescent symbol as something worth a ferocious bite.  Whatever its origins, I have wanted to master the croissant for a long time, as well. I look to my friend, Vincent Talleu, who seems to make it look easy.

My challenge has been the finesse of lamination, getting past the layers that lead to something delightfully ethearal yet tactile, crisp but light. Finally after so many years,  I think it's come to me.  

Here are the steps in making the croissants.

1. The dough (Detrempe ) and butter block, the cornerstones of making the layers. The detrempe is made with flour, milk/water, yeast, sugar and salt. Because of issues of enzymes in milk as well osmotolerant yeast, you have to work out how to introduce it into the dough, once the dough comes together add slowly in two cycles. It's the amount of sugar, usually levels over 5% in a dough can be troublesome in rising sweet dough.

 

2. Enveloping the dough around the butter block. Several factors weigh in; dough and butter should be at equal temperature to prevent smearing. You need to refrigerate the dough between rolling and folding dough, at least 30 minutes to an hour depending on ambient temperatures.

3. Once the butter (25 percent of the dough's total weight) is wrapped within, roll out the dough and give it one of three folds.

Rolled and ready for first fold....

The edges aren't perfectly uniform, but if you cut into the dough, you would notice the layer structure in the dough is progressing after each fold. Always dust off excess flour which can inhibit good rising and show up in the dough layers.

4. Here I have just made single folds, there is also a double fold which obviously gives more layers, but I opted for easy and quick, it was pretty humid when I was making this dough.

5. After the third and final fold and resting, you have the option of freezing the dough as a block, or shaping and freezing the croissants. Of course if you prefer go ahead, shape and bake.

No pictures of cutting and rolling, as I had too much flour on hands and other work duties, but you can find a good description where I did for the whole process, here and here.

Just rolled and egg washed....now the wait, about two hours....

 

Risen, brushed with egg wash, soon, patience....

Puffed and ready for the fire!

 There's something about yeasty hot pastry....

I made a big batch of dough, my staff and I like coffee goodies....pain au chocolat, why not?

Lucky Mistake

Quite often I go back to formulas to make sure I can recreate something again for a second or third time. Baking is an addiction where I want to make 50 different things at once. If you're like me, sometimes you scratch the wrong numbers - or forget to drink your cofee and you make mistakes. As I initially did with a rendition of J. Hamelman's famous loaf made from rye and flax seed along with old dough soaker. 

Initially I added too much water in the final dough (20 percent too much), but then I just added in a bit of flour till the loaf could be shaped. Well, surprise, surprise... this loaf was magnificent; shiny, tasty and all sorts of good adjectives, so mistakes can yield something lucky... or just result in mistakes. This time it led to something good.  

Two loaves in the oven

Mill loaf

Fall is almost here, bringing weather changes. With cooler temperatures, I have to get my bearings on the emerging season. I've double-fed my levain hoping to yield some high risers within a cooler climate. The latest batch used a formula from Australia's Bourke Street Bakery, which published a great book and is a place I'd like to visit one day if I get down to Oz.

I've had amazing results in the past with the linseed and soy bread. Tempted by a bit of extra levain, I split mine for two formulas made a mill loaf and spelt. I baked the mill loaf directly, but left the spelt overnight in the fridge for a longer rise. The flavors are terrific, slightly acidic but full of wheat and rye nuances, with a fantastic crust and crumb. The spelt, is probably the best spelt effort I've had. This formula is all white spelt, which is lighter then the whole grain spelt. I may add into it next time.

Most satisfying was the oven spring and crumb structure. I wish these artisan bakery books would try to make an effort putting in percentages. Maybe it's not in their interest to give too much away. Do they fear we'd open our own bakery? They could be right, though it's a tough job, percentages or no percentages. Regardless, lots of budding homebakers would appreciate it. 

 

Spelt

Doctored chocolate chip cookie

Who doesn't love cookies, especially basic chocolate chip? Sure we can fuss over the orthodox methods and recipes, but why bother! . Below are photos from a batch I made from a recipe earned in my days in the pastry kitchen of the now defunct Drake Hotel. Last weekend was filled by endless rain so I baked these, throwing in cherries leftover from a batch of granola I was also baking. Then I had cocoa nibs, always good and full of flavor and bite.... Hmmm, cocoa powder to make them a triple threat. Why not! Here you go. 

 

Chocolate, cherry, walnut,(or pecan?) cocoa nib chip cookies.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Pre-heat oven 375 F

11/2 sticks of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 whole egg

1 1/2 cups A.P. Flour

2 Tbsp. Cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

1/4 cup cocoa nibs

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup walnuts (optional, I love nuts.)

Prepare two 12x 17 inch Sheet pans with parchment paper.

Sift dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Beat butter and sugar, vanilla. Mix until smooth. Add in egg and whip till fluffy. Add in dry ingredients, fold in with a mixer or by hand till just incorporated. Mix in cherries, cocoa nibs, chocolate chips and nuts. Once mixed, take tablespoon size balls and place divided on sheet pan about 3 inches apart as they will spread once baked. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes, set on a cooling tray, wait for it.....if you can!

 

 

Campaillou, maybe?

 

Many years ago I met the boulanger Pascal Rigo. My brother Philippe worked with him in LA and I first tried a fabulous loaf of bread his crew made that they called Campaillou. It's a rustic bread from the Bordeaux region, and it's a wheat/rye speckled loaf. Amazing flavor and shelf life, it was shaped in a large Couronne and cut in huge slabs.

No matter how hard I tried to coax the formula from Pascal I wasn't successful. Years later when I started baking school at French Culinary Institute, I found a familiar tasting loaf called Bordelaise. After baguettes, it was the most popular bread at my school amongst the students and faculty. I've been trying a formula for this Bordelaise rustique, converting it to just levain without great success.

The other day, for instance, I tried a high extraction flour in it... which was silly, as it called solely for rye and wheat. The result, the opposite of impressive. It happens, at least to me, getting too many ideas. Anyway, campaillou is a colloquial derivitive of pain de campagne, and maybe the higher ratio of rye makes it more rustic.

If Pascal isn't too busy perhaps he'd take up an invitation and do an interview and give us a hint on Campaillou. In the meantime, I think I've got a possible positive out come on this wonderful bread.