STIR THE POTS

Baking madness, a baker obsessed!

Times a wasting! Not having had a decent piece of bread in weeks, I thought the best way to quench my craving was to start baking. I had three levains in the fridge. The liquid and solid levains took a single feeding to awaken, perhaps because I had fed them quite often before leaving for Ecuador.  Anyway, the first bake was a multigrain loaf we did at SFBI, made with a pre-ferment and some yeast. But this time I made it all natural levain.

 


 

Multigrain bread(adapted from SFBI)

Soaker:

30g flax seeds

30g sesame seeds

30g sunflower seeds

30g oats,( I used Bob's Red mill 5 grain rolled cereal)

75g water

Soak for at least two hours

Levain:

80g flour

45g water

10g starter

Final dough:

215g AP flour

85g   Whole wheat

35g   Rye

240g water

195g soaker

135g levain

10g salt

Mix flour and water, autolyse for 30 to 60 minutes. Add in levain and mix at first speed for about 3 minutes. Mix in salt at second speed mix to medium or improved consistency, (window pane), add in soaker until incorporated at second speed.

1-11/2 hour bulk ferment with one fold if needed.

divide into 1lb or 454 g pieces, pre-shape into balls and rest at least 30 minutes.

Shape, whatever suits you, I made batards, since my attempt at school was less then spectacular!

1-2 hours rise in banneton or couche.

Bake about 35-40 minutes with steam at 450 F

These are quite moist and I allowed them to sit in the oven an extra 10-15 minutes with the oven off and the door slightly ajar.

Having followed the amazing home baker, Hans Joakim on his blog at the fresh loaf, I picked one of the many formulas he shared. Not having baked for awhile, I did make some errors in measuring the ingredients for this rye starter-based pain au levain. It still seemed to hold its form and taste. I will give it a proper go again and probably a lot more of this repertoire from this fine baker!

Finally, there's a loaf based on Jim Lahey's "no knead dough", something I'm revisiting, wondering if I can really make this loaf with just a levain rather then yeast. Umm.... verdict  is still out as the loaf or blob is still in my oven...maybe I will give that another look over and try again? (or not?).

Well two out of three isn't that bad.

Will be submitted to Susan @ Wild yeast yeast spotting!

Shapes of things....Fendu and Pistolet

The French have the funniest names for things, including the shapes and names for breads. Categorized precisely, as well as baked, we know them as fendu,(split) or pistolet (pistol), and miche which is derrière. So here, down below are some examples of the breads beyond the humor.

Thanks to Vincent Talleu for linking a cool video about Tour's Jacques Mahou,which inspired me to give these loaves a try. I was unsuccessful making them in previous attempts as home. But this time, with just some good shaping, a dowel and some great dough, voila!

I would be remiss to forget to mention my other inspirations, Susan of Wild Yeast and, of course, master baker Jeffrey Hamelman for his wonderful Vermont Sourdough, which was my shaping medium. I made this bread to take with me to Ecuador for family, I may just keep one as the bread is softy there!

This is going to Susan's Yeastspotting, and this I promise is my last bake till I return, maybe??

JT's 85x3 au nature, sans levure chimique

The breads above were found on a formula via MC. It's an 85x3 bread, some high extraction flour, and three pre-ferments, biga, poolish and levain. All to say it took lots of math. Well I crunched numbers and avoided any commercial yeast and....

Truth be told, I massacred the process and didn't do the second addition of water thing. No doppio impasto or basinage,whatever... no, that's not me. I just autolyse'ed and went full throttle making my loaf. Hell, it's August, which means I am on vacation! Using the last bit of Golden Buffalo flour, my pre-ferments were far from kosher, using whole wheat with a percentage of white flour. Like I said, it's August, and hate to rub it in, but this chef is taking some time off!

Anyway this formula kicked ass. This loaf wasn't gonna go for a long cold retarding, no it went from bulk proofing, with some folds, pre-shape, final proof and smack into my oven... So, thanks to it's innovative creator, JT and for MC who always inspires....

And now, well, have a great month. I'm off to South America. See you when I get back from my next adventure.....I will be away checking out the Pacific whales of this planet's southern hemisphere.

 
 

Olé!

My recent bakes, Sicilian semolina (at left), and a Pane di segale with pancetta (on the right) are a shout out (or hola) to those baking in Spain. They aren't Spanish breads, but I've yet to  consider or try some Spanish bread formulas, and hope I do them justice, if some Spanish bakers could point me in the right direction.

Recently I was featured in a Spanish periodical El Pais amongst other fine bread bloggers, by some really inspired bloggers themselves, Javier Marca and Augustin Oliet of Madrid Tiene Miga...

 Ole! Y Gracias....

Lepard inspires pizza making...grazie Dan

pizza della patata, pancetta, finocchio, cipolla e del formaggio

A moment of silence...(for Michael)

Yesterday I got sad news about my friend and chef Michael Kobylanski. Apparently, he passed away last weekend. It had been a beautiful day up till then, sun shining outside, inside cooking up a good lunch. The day reminds me of Michael. He wasn't just a dedicated cook. He was a lover of the Sarangi and all sorts of Eastern mystic stuff or other quirks that made him who he was. Special. I will miss him, whether for his politically incorrect jokes or his perfect imitation of one of the characters from Deliverance. 

He once greeted me at his apartment wearing overalls without a shirt. "Howdy Clem", he said, pinching his  nipple, a typical Michael-moment. The man was full of laughs, once spiking a waiter's egg sandwich with Nigerian cayenne pepper, which became a regular event. 

He also baked incredible breads, unorthodox and with a hand feel approach. His  pizzas were brilliant. And as an innovator, he always encouraged us not to follow the mise-n-place list of our former chef, a guy characterized by over-seasoning, herbs and copious amounts of flavored lipids. What was hilarious was the same chef tasting our food, believing we'd followed directions, telling us how wonderful it turned out because of his specialized ingredients. Knowing better, Michael and I just listened, sharing a grin. 

What I most recall was Mike's professional irreverence. He never could seriously respect the food wannabe, or the superstar chefs. Mike would much prefer eating at home with his beloved wife Renata than try the latest trendy supposed hot-spot. Not that he always stayed home. He sought interesting eats with passion, and looked to push the imagination of younger chefs. I'll always recall him encouraging those working under us. In the stress filled and sometimes less then friendly field we call cooking, Mike stood out as a stand-up guy.

I have so many stories I could share of my good friend, I am sorry we didn't spend as much time together to gather more memories, but I wish him sunshine and good lunches and love, wherever he is. 

Rest in peace friend, dziękuję.

Derivatives

This post isn't anything to do with the Wall Street type of derivatives. Rather it's an homage to a bakery "down under," namely in Australia. Sydney's Bourke Street bakery  is owned by Paul Allam and David McGuinness. It's a much talked about neighborhood bakery that also has a book chock-full of wonderful baked goods.

While I haven't been to visit yet, my friend Shiao-Ping talked about the book on The Fresh Loaf, motivating me to buy it. So far I used its recipes for two or three loaves, all with pretty good success. It offers easy-to-use formulas for more experienced bakers, but it's also a good starter material for beginners.

Today's bake was one of there so called derivative loaves, a sourdough-meets-linseed-and-soy. It's easily made and sports an awesome flavor. I think it's sure to become a staple. My neighbors Jane and Adrian, serving as bread guinea pigs, were my first customers. While slathering the freshly baked loaf with French butter, Jane asked if I was baking another loaf, as this one was halfway gone!

Buffalo from Kansas, the golden kind....from the Heartland.

Making bread means sacrifice, hot oven, sweat, time and... some freaking organic flour! Golden Buffalo from Heartland Mill in Kansas was my latest purchase, along with some medium rye and malted wheat flour. Where is a NYC-based baker going to get local high extraction flour? While a wonderful and resourceful baker told me to visit a certain downtown Manhattan yoga/health food center for my flour resources, I couldn't wait. I live in Queens, and that's too long a subway or bicycle ride, especially when I have a weekend urge to make a miche that my fellow bakers/bloggers Susan and MC have baked. So I stayed and shopped local and went for the flour from Kansas. Which only added more fermentation to the dream of opening my own bakery and buying the huge 50 pounders at least once a week!!!!

So what's my point here? A home baker needs good flour to make a decent rendition or facsimile of Jeffrey Hamelman's  breads, let alone any other loaf from any source. So my challenge to all you bakers is this; tell the world we're not amateurs, we're connoisseurs. We're making good honest bread. We want a better source for better flour, not that supermarket stuff that by dint of necessity we end up buying. No, world - listen up,  we want a home baker's share of commercial baking flour. After all, world, we're here to make good bread.

Okay, rant over. As to my first miche with this flour, it's the Pointe a' Caillere Miche from Jeffrey Hamelman's book. Hope your weekend is as bright and tasty as Kansas sunshine, not to mention flour.

10 Downing street

No, I haven't been to London in years. But I was asked to make a reservation for a young  friend of ours to celebrate his eighth year on our planet. And so relying on my inner food guide, I thought of my food blogging friend Shuna Fish Lydon, who is also the pastry chef at 10 Downing street in NYC.

Shuna and I met up online, both mutual fans of each other's blog. And when she returned home to the United States (her native home) from London where she had been baking professionally, we moved from the virtual to the real world, specifically New York City! While we're planning to do an interview here for Stir the Pots, for now we're waiting for the time in between both of our work schedules.

Anyway, for the birthday party, Shuna told me to get in early. "The place gets loud," she said. With people or piped in soundtracks, I wondered. Personally, I still don't know why music is needed in restaurants these days. The sound of forks knives and conversation should be the choral background to eating. But... I digress. It's the food we are talking about, and what wonderful tasting food it was... Starting with Shuna's basket of seeded and plain soda breads,and a light,crisp  foccacia. Not the wild yeast formula that I gave her, mind you, but excellent. 

Chef Jonnatan Leiva, who hails from the Bay Area, serves up a farm friendly market oriented menu. He kindly sent us some delicious tasting samplers; a demi-tasse of potato leek soup, and my favorite a simple but flavor filled beet salad with Castelvetrano olives, and burrata. Honestly, I almost ate the whole thing myself!

I could of had the foie gras or some other meat, but I wanted fish. So I ordered a delectable scallop ceviche and some local albacore tuna with sepia in a light ginger broth, it was light and lovely and allowed for some desserts later...

With two eight year old kids, you wonder if they can or will eat what they've ordered. But our young friends had good ideas on food, going for the roasted Bobo chicken and the Painted Hill Farms beef burger with truffled fries.The tuber on tuber frites were such a hit, the uneaten portion went home with our guest who was adamant when instructing the waitstaff to package them. "Truffles are expensive you know", she said!

Our server, sporting a a pierced tongue and a commanding knowledge of the food and wine selection, had me a bit hypnotized. Whether it was her striking looks or the wonderful wine, I found it hard to remember what I had ordered when Shuna came out to say hello and started quizzing me on the menu.

Shuna then let me sneak back into the kitchen to squeeze off a few candid photographs... including her and the restaurant's Sous chef Matthew Wilbur making gnocchi for a wonderful Striped Bass my wife had for dinner.

I would be remiss also if I didn't mention her wonderful desserts that our table literally devoured, leaving us all with a dessert high, I couldn't remember a thing and I didn't get a focused photo, just too busy enjoying it all!

Thanks Shuna!

My inglorious batard!

My friend MC is probably the luckiest baker, investigating and expanding not only her own baking skill, but other baker's knowledge and sharing it with her many followers of her blog. Recently she has been visiting a certified baker in Vermont, Gérard Rubaud, who is sharing his method of building a levain to make his celebrated Rustic breads. So where do I come into this picture?

The haphazard obsessive home baker, my moniker Mr. Lazy Baker takes over. You could call it a Jekyll and Hyde bread personality - he means well but is too damned lazy! As in this moment, the main problem being I don't have all of the tools or all of the ingredients to make or follow some great lessons shared by a remarkable lady and wonderful baker, Ms. MC.. But what is this  lazy bugger baker like me supposed to do?

Well I built a levain at about the same hydration, minus the builds with fresh grains and the 24 hour window,etc.. I took no notes and just finished the dough according to MC's instruction and list of ingredients, staying true to that. Basically I bulls*%ted my way into making a bastardized version of what is most likely a wonderful work of artisan baking. I admit, it doesn't make me proud. But in-spite of this, the dough looks responsive and it feels nice. Maybe I feel a little proud. Honestly, I kind of feel like one of those knock off guys making a Chanel bag, that looks better then the original. Is that proud or foolish?

Proof will be in the pudding, as MC said. Well, something went awry and its seems like I may have let the cat out of the bag too soon!

This is what you would call a blow out, or that loaf has a big grin - not grigne - on it.

When and if I can get my paws on the ingredients and equipment, as MC so plainly shows in her own wonderful post, I might give the original formula a try with some real effort. But in the  mean time I may try this Lazy Baker method a second chance with some adjustments, perhaps a thermometer, a note pad and pencil.