Each new bread formula raises my anxiety, as in "how am I gonna do this?" Two things calm me, methods and inspiration. Here's a method I use to allay fear, benefit of Mick Hartley of Bethesda Baking fame. So far as inspiration, my baking muse for Levantine leavening is Lev Lior Sercarz, the spice guru whose Jerusalem bagels and Yogurt challah have me delighted.
The holidays led to spending a lot of time with lievito madre, the wonderful sourdough foundation of baking panettone. Refreshed and bathed to cleanse residual acidity, it demands three-hour feeds that are cycled in-between for double mixes. It comes with the need to make choices on its maintenance and refreshment. For instance, do you keep in a jar or tie it up in cloth? Whatever you decide, it's useful for more than panettone, as I found in incorporating it to make a batch of baguettes.
A few years ago I left New York City and my Sunnyside apartment for a bread class in Norwich Vermont, home of King Arthur baking and flour. It also was home to King Arthur's Master baker, Jeffrey Hamelman. Recently I fished out my notes from the class to make his signature loaf, a Norwich sourdough. With its long autolyse and refreshed levain, I did my best to methodically recall the movements and steps to get "just the right specimen" from my oven. Pandemic lifestyle makes you focus on things that matter. Like bread!
At work, I'm not just the chef. I am also the staff meal coordinator and resident baker. Recently I started using my old U.S. Army recipe cards from back when I was answered as Private Shapiro, Sir! Back in the days when getting creative with ingredients could lead to the rolling eyes of our Warrant officer inspector, who would inevitably note that we weren't quite following the specifications of each recipe. I remember an often repeated refrain to such gents, basically, "um, yeah, I think it was a tablespoon sir?"
Anyway, cutting to my current battles as a middle-aged chef at a small private New York City club, the old recipes need to be calculated to grams, reduced from portions serving 100 soldiers to a motley kitchen crew of ten. My best Army recipes seem to have been breads, more specifically basic white loafs. These days I fancy the ingredients by adding whole wheat for a T80 rendition. Then there's the buns, which actually hold up with the best of your basic "smash burgers" or hot dogs, absorbing juices without breaking down. I also use the Army recipes for chop suey, chili, and fried chicken. Thinking about all these dishes reminds me that a fighting force really does live on its belly! And so does a modern kitchen crew.
Pressed for time one evening, I was recruited by my wife to make some risotto with mushrooms picked up recently at a local farmers' market. Luckily I'd also recently acquired a can of Vialone nano rice. It led to a fabulous meal, the rice toothy and satisfying, far from the mushy arborio variety more commonly used riso. I read some interesting information here. Check it out. It's a thirsty and absorbent rice that is somehow dainty yet keeps its shape. And it's also just delicious.
My wife incorporated her diet with bone broth, stock she makes from turkey necks and wings along with a split pigs trotter, and chicken feet for collagen oomph! Anyway, this past Thanksgiving we used the left-over turkey for tamales with red mole. The meat was perfect; moist and redolent of flavor. Realizing I had no lard for the masa, I decided to go with oil and ghee. This meant a third less fat as lard is semi-solid while oil and ghee are liquid. But I got a fantastic result. This included a delicious flavor, a thoroughly lighter texture and turkey meat that fully absorbed the fiery red mole flavors. Yeeee-ha!
Sara Owens of BK17 has a fabulous brown butter banana bread recipe made with sourdough. I have tried it twice at work. The kitchen staff loved it, as did customers, even people who didn't like bananas. Rye-based sourdough was key. This is a keeper...try it!
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