Farine

Crazy for Bread

Nantucket Crown

This bread doesn’t have much in common with the quaint island that lies off the coast of Cape Cod. Rather it takes its name from the blend of dried fruit and nuts I used, which is sold at Costco under the name “Nantucket Blend”.
You will notice that, being calorie-conscious, I used very little of this blend, just enough to give the bread its fruity and nutty flavor.
Since this loaf contains 70% whole-grain flours, I added a bit of yeast to the starter. I could probably have done without but then I would have had to make the fermentation a while longer.

Ingredients:

  • 250 g white whole wheat flour
  • 150 g all-purpose unbleached flour (I use Whole Foods 365 Organic)
  • 50 g sorghum flour (spelt or kamut flour can be substituted) 
  • 50 g dark rye flour
  • 50 g coarse yellow cornmeal 
  • 300 g water 
  • 170 g liquid starter 100% hydration
  • 55 g Nantucket blend (or other)
  • 26 g raw wheat germ
  • 11 g salt
  • 12 g almond oil (canola or sunflower oil can be substituted)
  • 4 g instant yeast (I use SAF)

Method:

  1. Put all the ingredients (except the fruit & nut) in the bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer (in mine, liquid ingredients must go first)
  2. Select and start the dough program
  3. Check the consistency of the dough as it is being kneaded (for best results, reserve a tenth of the water at the beginning and add it or not according to the needs of the dough)
  4. When the machine beeps, add the fruit and nut mixture
  5. Let the dough program run its course till the end of the rising period
  6. Take the dough out of the machine and divide it into 8 equal pieces
  7. Pre-shape each of these pieces into a rough boule (ball) and let rest 20 minutes under a damp towell
  8. Shape each piece into a boule and put the 8 boules in a circle on a baking sheet covered with semolina-sprinkled parchment paper
  9. Put the baking sheet in a big clear plastic bag, blow into the bag once and close it tightly
  10. Let rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half
  11. Twenty minutes before baking time, turn on the oven (450 F/246 C)
  12. Put in a baking stone with an empty metal pan on the rack below it
  13. Before baking, score or stencil the loaves (or do both as on the photo) and pour a cup of cold water in the hot metal dish (taking care to avoid getting the steam in your face or on your hands)
  14. Open the oven again and slide the crown (still on the parchment paper) directly onto the baking stone
  15. Spray the oven heavily with water (taking care not to aim at the lamp to avoid cracking) and close the oven
  16. Spray again two minutes later, then lower the oven temperature to 450 F/232 C and do not open the oven for the next 30 to 35 minutes
  17. Take the loaf out of the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

This loaf would look good with a buffet-style dinner, or even at Easter on the brunch table. Each of the “little” boules is big enough to be thinly sliced and served with a runny goat cheese or with a Brie or camembert. It is also very good at breakfast with butter and honey or jam.

No-knead garlic parmesan bread

This recipe is one of several I tried in Nancy Baggett’s Kneadlessly Simple book. I am not a huge fan of no-knead breadmaking as I don’t mind the kneading (especially since I am the lucky owner of a bread machine, which means that, when I don’t have the time or energy to knead by hand, I just throw all the ingredients in the machine, select the dough cycle and let the machine take care of the temperature, the mixing and, sometimes, the first rise).
But I still find Baggett’s book rather amazing as it manages time and again to produce great breads with minimum effort.
While in most of her other recipes, I replaced the yeast with sourdough starter (with very good results), in this one, I stuck to yeast. The only thing I changed is the way I baked the loaf. From step 17 on, I reverted to my usual way of doing things.
Whenever possible, I like to put the dough in a cold Dutch oven which I cover and put in a cold oven which I then turn on. It saves on the energy bill and it is better for the environment than preheating. It also saves me the trouble of creating steam as the dough self-steams inside the Dutch oven.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large head of garlic
  • 1 tbsp olive oil 
  • 10 g freshly grated Parmesan + 2 tbsp for garnish
  • 570 g unbleached all-purpose flour (I use Whole Foods 365 organic)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3.5 g instant yeast (I use SAF)
  • 500 g ice water + more if needed

Method:

  1. Peel off the papery outer skin from the garlic but do not separate the cloves. Cut across the top portion to display the flesh inside. Discard the cut-off portion
  2. Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a small ovenproof dish, dip the cut side of the garlic in the oil, then turn the head cut-side up, place in the cup and cover the cup with foil
  3. Bake in a preheated 350 F/177 C oven for 35 to 45 minutes
  4. Let cool, then squeeze or scrape the garlic from the cloves into a medium bowl
  5. Add 10 g of Parmesan and thoroughly mash with a fork to form a paste
  6. Reserve (this paste can be made several days ahead and refrigerated; it would need to be brought back to room temp and stirred before using)
  7. In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, salt and yeast
  8. Vigorously stir the water and the garlic mixture into the bowl until the ingredients are thoroughly blended
  9. If too dry, stir in just enough water to blend the ingredients but don’t overmoisten as the dough should be very stiff (add flour if necessary to stiffen it)
  10. Brush or spray the top with olive oil
  11. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 12 to 18 hours (I put it in the fridge overnight)
  12. Then let rise at cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours. If convenient, vigorously stir the dough once partway through the rise (I forgot to do that)
  13. Using an oiled rubber spatula, lift and fold the dough in towards the center, working all the way around the bowl, taking care not to deflate it. Brush or spray with olive oil. Re-cover with plastic wrap
  14. Let rise at warm room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours or if preferred, refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours (I refrigerated overnight again)
  15. Then set out at room temperature and let rise until the dough doubles from the deflated size, removing the plastic as the dough nears it
  16. Put a rack with a baking stone on it in the lower third of the oven
  17. Here is where I didn’t do what the recipe says, which is to oil a Dutch oven and heat it in the oven. I just took the dough out of the bowl, inverted it on a piece of parchment paper and, using the paper as a sling, lifted the loaf and put it into a cold Dutch oven
  18. I sprayed it with water and sprinkled the 2 tbsp of Parmesan over the top
  19. I put the covered Dutch oven in the cold oven and turned the oven on (475 F/246 C)
  20. I baked for 30 minutes at 475 F/246 C, then reduced the temperature to 425 F/218 C)
  21. After 10 more minutes, I took the loaf out of the Dutch oven, removed the parchment paper and set the loaf directly on the baking stone
  22. Then I let it bake until golden. When golden, I tented it with foil and continued with the baking until it reached an internal temperature of 207 to 208 F/97 to 98 C on an instant-read thermometer
  23. Then I took it out and let it cool on a wire rack.

Rustic rye mini-loaves with anise seeds

I know that spring has arrived in Europe but here, my gosh, March came in roaring like a lion (to paraphrase Mayor Bloomberg of New York City). It snowed huge clouds of white fluff, the wind is howling in the creaking trees and tonight will be bitterly cold.
So our little primroses remain inside on the window sills from which they like to contemplate the frost. For us, who don’t like it as much (although it is pretty, I must admit), I whipped up my magic wand (my 4-year old granddaughter was watching Cinderalla at the time and I felt I had to do something to impress her) and made rustic mini-loaves or honeycakes. Their fragrance filled up the house with dreams of other times, other seasons, other places…

The little ones loved them. Sophia (the 4-year old) even put big pieces in her cereal bowl and said they were delicious with milk. I tried and she’s right. It’s an awesome combination. The grown-ups like them too, especially the Man who, being born in Belgium, is a big fan of pain d’épice in all its guises. And what are these little loaves if not the rustic cousins of the French and Belgian honeycakes we grew up with? They are very comforting with a hot cup of tea.

Ingredients:

  • 140 g dark rye flour
  • 120 g all-purpose unbleached flour
  • 20 g of white whole wheat flour (if you don’t have any, don’t replace it by regular whole wheat flour. In combination with the rye, the taste would be too strong. Just add another 20g of the all-purpose flour)
  • 2 tbsp roasted almond butter
  • 200 g honey
  • 100 g liquid starter (100% hydration)
  • 100 g almond milk
  • 5 g ground anise seeds
  • 2 g each ground pepper, ginger, clove and cinnamon
  • 3 g salt

Method:

  1. Heat up the milk and melt the honey in it
  2. Turn on the oven ( 350 F/177 C)
  3. Add the almond butter to the milk and honey and mix well
  4. Mix the flours, the salt and the spices in a big bowl
  5. Add the starter
  6. Add the milk-almond butter and honey mixture. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated
  7. Spoon the batter into tiny pans (I used a mini-loaf pan sheet which I bought in France but I could have used mini-muffins pans). Mine do not need to be greased but muffin pans sometimes do. So check before spooning the batter
  8. Bake for 30 or 35 minutes. Turn off the oven. Take the loaves out of the pans and put them back in the oven for 5 minutes in case the sides are still a bit pale
  9. Cool down a bit on a cooling rack before devouring them with a nice spoonful of fragrant honey

No-knead bread strikes again!


(click on the image to see the book on amazon.com)

Just as we thought we now knew more than we ever would need or want to know about no-knead bread and painless artisan bread, here comes a new book with a new method and plenty of well-researched recipes and, listen to this, it rocks!
Serious amateur bakers who love to mix their dough just on this side of enough, make sure it comes out at the right temperature (usually somewhere around 75 F/24 C), like to give it some strength (but not too much) by folding it once or twice while it is rising, treat it like bone china and are rewarded by crusty crusts and holey crumb will be horrified to learn that pouring ice water onto the flour and mixing it until just incorporated, adding flour so that the dough becomes very stiff, then sticking it in the fridge for up to 10 hours, then letting it rise at cool room temperature for 18 to 24 hours, then adding yet more flour not only works, but works great!
It is easy to see that the author spent years baking the traditional way before going on to experiment with this method. She is clearly on solid grounds when talking about bread “science”.
Her goal is to make it possible for everybody to bake good bread at home using a simplified Reinhard/Gosselin method (for more info on this method, please refer to The Breadbaker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhard).
Bagget minimizes the number of steps and opportunities for mistakes and explains how to adapt traditional recipes to her method. Generally speaking, she goes a long way towards simplifying artisan baking at home.
Her book contains many different recipes, covering a wide variety of grains and other ingredients.
I can’t vouch for her baking method which I didn’t follow as I don’t like the idea of doing the second rise directly in an ovenproof pot or casserole. I like to use baskets or to just shape the loaves on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and then, transfer them to a Dutch oven just before baking.
Also, the San Francisco style sourdough bread recipe is the only one in the book that uses sourdough. Since I prefer baking with natural starter to baking with commercial yeast (I like the crust better and the shelf life is much longer), I converted to sourdough most of the recipes I tried. They still work, which says a lot for the soundness of the method, however out of the beaten paths it may sound.
It was fun to try the recipes and find out time after time that the bread came out just as I wanted it. The only part I take exception with is that the process is rather long. This is not a spur-of-the-moment let’s make bread for dinner tonight kind of book. The actual worktime is quite short but you need to plan ahead a little bit. On the other hand, if it were at all quicker, this no-knead method would probably produce mediocre breads, so it is a trade-off.
I like the fact that, in most cases, there is only one bowl, sometimes two, to clean but I regret that the ingredients are mostly measured in volume (although ounces are indicated for the flours). I hope that in another edition (or a follow-up book), grams will be given as well.
For people who watch their sugar intake, some of the breads may contain too much sweeteners such as honey or molasses. In my experience, it is possible to considerably reduce that amount or to skip the sweetener altogether.