Crazy for Bread
You know how sometimes you set out to make whipped cream and you go for it with such enthusiasm that you get butter? Well, the same thing just happened to me with hazelnuts.
I wanted to make Chocolate and Zucchini‘s excellent cauliflower soup with hazelnuts and turmeric which I have made several times in the past. It is the perfect soup for a fall evening. Fragrant, exotic and yet low-key: spices, chicken stock, one onion, a humble cauliflower and a handful of hazelnuts.
Unlike many of the classes and demos at the Grain Gathering, the whole-grain for the home baker workshop took place in the lobby kitchen of WSU Extension, a place well-suited for a demo but hardly the perfect stage for a dance. Yet a choreographed performance is what Josey and Jonathan opened with, arguing that were no better introduction to the five golden principles of whole-grain baking than the W.W.W. S. B. pas de deux.
Dave Miller of Miller’s Bake House in Oroville, California, needs no introduction. A marvelous baker and dedicated miller, he has become a living legend in the world of bread. So I knew his workshop would be excellent (and mobbed) but I also knew that since he was planning to cover all the stages of whole-grain breadmaking starting with milling your own flours, I would only attend the first afternoon if I didn’t want to skip pretty much everything else at the Grain Gathering.
It is always a thrill to take a class with Jeffrey Hamelman, Director of King Arthur Bakery in Norwich, VT, and author of Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes but to watch him bake in a wood-fired oven in a beautiful orchard with a soft breeze swirling around fruit-laden appletrees takes the experience to a whole other level, especially when the first breads start sliding out, blistered and bubbly, and the air fills with the seductive fragrance of fire-burnished dough.
I have eaten my share of anise flatbreads over the years (Moroccan bakers sell them at open-air markets in Paris) but I can’t remember any as sinful as this one. With no anise seed in sight, the flavor comes from generous pre- and post-baking sprays of anise liqueur (Jeff actually used Pernod) and a melted dark chocolate filling. Make it at your own risk: by the time you have your second bite, you’ll know you just got yourself a serious new addiction!