STIR THE POTS

Sufganiyot

 

 

It's Hanukkah and Thanksgivin. "Fry 'em if you got 'em!"

Genoise Au Chocolat

Many years ago when I went to cooking school, the method of learning a core group of formulas was to memorize the ingredients,  known as " bon d'économat." Recently I was asked to make a cake impromptu style. I didn't have my handy formula sheet for Genoise. It's a classic cake in the French repertoire that is made with eggs, sugar, flour as well as a bit of butter and. Working with my dust-covered memory, I managed to summon up amounts for a chocolate genoise which includes cocoa and cornstarch! Can I blow my own bugle? Here goes. It worked! The cake was airy and absolutely what I remembered from school.

 

Domenico Bianco's Burnt Wheat Pizza

This past summer I met Domenico Bianco  a pizzaiola from Naples. He is a consultant for a food group who does worldwide training for pizzaoilas. Last week I had a chance to talk with him about all things fermented. He shared some photos and videos that showed pizza-shaping techniques.To my surprise he described dough made with burnt wheat (or "Grano Arso" as I recently wrote). It's a Napoletano dough basically, classic in most aspects except for the addition of the smokey burnt wheat.

Re-tool Grano Arso

Grano arso or burned wheat is something I find deliciously satisfying in bread and pasta. Still, my first attempt at using it didn't yield the light or full of oven spring desired in the crumb. It felt dense and a wee bit too rustic.

This weekend it was back to the drawing board with parameters and ingredients spun around and reconfigured. I used a pasta madre, or solid sourdough of semola rimacinata. Then I broke up the total flour into different percentages composed of half regular bread flour, high extraction rye, and semola in smaller quantities, with grano arso being the flavor enhancer. It worked. Results below.

 

 

Talking Business - Short Order Gourmet

Caterer Nancy DeAngelo and business partner Mary Lndolfi     

Caterer Nancy DeAngelo has spent 28 years in the food business. Between her first job in the hospitality business in Boston, followed by a period spent in Dallas, Nancy has crossed paths with future food stars such as Wolfgang Puck, Dean Fearing, Lydia Shire and Jasper White - meeting them while they were still forging their own careers.    

Today she runs the Boston-area catering companhy, Short Order Gourmet. We talked to Nancy about managing a food business with her two partners, Mary Landolfi and Philip Dirego. Partner Mary Landolfi joined us for the conversation. Here is what they told Stir the Pots.

Pavé 60/40

Paris micro baker Thierry Delabre makes a number of loaves, usually in the shape of something known as a "pavé" or cobblestone. It incorporates delicious ancient wheat and spelt varieties he's able to find. I've tried  making one of Delabre's infamous "Fanette," a signature loaf he  learned from Cucugan baker Roland Feuillas. And recently I tried making a 60/40 wheat and spelt pave-shaped loaf based on one of his Facebook posts.

I went about feeding my levain as he'd described for Fanette, specifically 50 percent hydrated. I made some fine specimens with 60 percent mix of wheat flours, whole wheat and high extraction,, as well as a 40 percent white spelt. With an overnight proof, I followed Thierry's marvelous video instruction he posted and was in for some nice loaves!

Test loaves