STIR THE POTS

Cornetti-Spelt Second Time

Baker Ben Rogers captures a great insight on baking when he says; "make little changes as you do it." Perfection in baking can become an obsession. While the last bake was good, the next will be better, right? That's the hope? I thought of that in relation to a recent batch of cornetti with spelt, which on my first try turned out more cakey than flakey.  So I re-worked this formula, this time using goat butter instead of cow's milk. And I changed my initial fermentation, discarding added citrus flavor while keeping the original ingredients highlighted by spelt, olive oil and some honey. 

Below are photos of my re-vamped cornetti.

Cornetti 29% Skura

I'm still aiming to use a grano arso flour mix to use with laminated dough (particularily croissants), but Domenico isn't convinced that French croissants are the answer. That may be due to a sort of Italian chauvanism, but there's also the question of whether I'll even able to extract the flavor of grano arso within layers of fat.

Anyway, I set about making cornetti with spelt and evoo, and here I substituted grano arso. Not a bad effort this time. I should of allowed a longer proof, yet they tasted good, and  hada nice crunch. The grano arso is evident in color, but its taste isn't that noticeable.

Croissants

Craving croissants, I made up a batch with a mix of half white whole wheat and all purpose flour. Finding some fresh yeast in the store for a change, I decided to let down my purist sourdough ferment and make this easier to schedule while I am at work.

Using All-purpose and white whole wheat seemed a nod to healthier, or just a shade darker, so I wouldn't carry so much guilt shoveling these puppies in my mouth.

All the steps in preparation came back to me, with a couple of quick peeks into some resourceful pages of books. Once I started folding in the butter, the dough and butter came together nicely.

Giving it 30-minute rests between folds made the dough easy to work with, and I didn't find any smeared butter within the layers, even in the humid conditions of that day. 

Once the rolling was over, I had to stop the ferment or I'd have to bake them the same day. The trick is to work quickly. No tweeting or chatting on line while making these!  

An overnight retard, I used my Brød & Taylor proofer with acceptional results, even with the high humidity, it's a powerful tool!

Flaky goodness, made by hand at home...you can too!

 

Flaky Croissants, again...

Prior to attending  a one day croissant class at my alma mater, French Culinary Institute, I decided to give croissants a go, again. Previously, I had failed with straight levain and spelt. I thought that a wee bit of yeast would help. Or some points from Jeffrey Hamelman, master baker and, in the past, one of my teachers.  

 Without getting too crazy, I threw in a twist, I'm using the formula from another school I attended; San Francisco Baking Institute.  They gave me this wonderful idea of using spring wheat, otherwise known as "white whole wheat flour. "  Not being sure of my skill with the sole use of this flour, I only added in 40 percent of it, topping off the 60 percent with bread flour and... crossing my fingers! I also omitted the egg yolk, which is to provide more richness. Finally, I used agave instead of sugar. Healthy or unwise? Whatever, they came out easy to devour and enjoy.