{Slow and Steady BBA}Torpedoes and Miche

THIS has been an experience. Baking my way, along with several other friends, through Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice. That what I have been for the last 40+ breads, an apprentice. This apprenticeship began in August of 2009 when Nancy suggested we do a small goupr of BBA with just two breads a month rather than weekly. Weekly was just too much bread. I started with the Ciabatta bread, caught up, and last week Kayte and I, well, Kayte, finished the breads. The last two in the book are Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedoes and Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche.

The Torpedoes are made with boiled unpeeled potatoes, slices of cheddar cheese (although I used shredded and it did fine!), and chopped fresh chives. The bread was so chewy, rustic, and delicious.

The tops of the loaves are slashed so that the cheese oozes out onto the tops of the bread. Fresh out of the oven it was wonderful. Grilled for a sandwich it was perfect. Definitely a repeat here.I am glad I made two to begin with. One is safely tucked away in the freezer.

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The Miche was full of Asiago cheese both internally and sprinkled on top before baking. There was also sauteed onions on top {although they may look burnt, they are pleasingly caramelized!!}

This bread was AMAZING!! All the flavor of the cheese and the richness of the bread. It is a three day bread but worth all 72 hours. One day to make the sponge. One day prepare the dough and sautee (or roast) the onions and one day to bake the bread. Did I say how amazing it was?? I only made 1/2 of the recipe and it resulted in a large 11 inch diameter bread.

HUGE!!

You should have been reading the tweets that were being passed back and forth between me, Kayte, and Rebecca. It was as if we were obsessed with bread. Well, of course, we ARE !! So much fun baking with others, even if we are thousands of miles apart!!!!

While Kayte has now finished all the breads in Reinhart’s book I still have 5 to go. Four of them are sourdough and one is the Artos: Greek Celebration Bread. I will get to them. Really, I will!!

If you get a chance visit at Grandma’s Kitchen Table and look at Kayte’s breads. And Rebecca made it with the original group.

Thanks for tagging along on my apprenticeship and thanks to all the other Slow and Steady Bakers for introducing me to such wonderful breads.

 

{Slow and Steady BBA} Whole-Wheat Bread

Whole Wheat bread is NOT something our family eats very often. I know it is better for you than white bread and I often add whole wheat flour to other things I bake – quick breads, etc. I actually like Whole Wheat bread but I am really the only one. Which is why when I made this last basic bread from Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice I only made enough dough for one small loaf.

Reinhart’s bread had a wonderful rustic texture and a nice nutty flavor. It was good toasted and plain. Nice bread.

I used my “Nancy Pan” which is long and narrow. It was actually a little long for just one dough recipe so I put a ‘stopper’ on one end.

That kinda-sorta worked but the bread did not rise much over the edge of the pan. But it is just fine for me and small sandwiches.

There are only two breads left in the BBA book. We should finish them by mid-March. So follow along with me, Kayte, and Nancy as we finish the breads.

 

{Slow and Steady BBA}White Bread: 3 variations.

ALLEGEDLY Marie Antoinette is said to have retorted, “Well, let them eat cake {brioche}!” when told that the people of France could not afford bread. {Studies show she probably DID NOT say anything like this}. The Phrase Finder reminds us that the victors write history and the French people didn’t really care for Marie very much!!

Personally, I would rather eat BREAD!!!

Which is way I (and many many others) decided to bake my way through Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Well, that journery is almost done and over the last two weeks Nancy, Kayte, and I have made THREE variations of Reinhart’s white bread.

While all three of my breads LOOKED exactly alike – I made rolls with all three recipes – they all tasted differently.

Bread #1 uses powdered milk and water.

Bread #2 uses buttermilk (or whole milk).

Bread #3 uses whole milk and utilizes a sponge.

ALL three were very good white bread rolls. We used them for sandwiches, hamburgers, and plain with butter just out of the oven. But of the three the rolls made with BUTTER MILK (#2) were the best. They had a richer sweeter flavor than the other two. As I was putting MEP together I realized I had no bread flour. I took a chance (after talking to Kayte and used AP flour instead. It worked out beautifully. If you want to try the buttermilk version you can find the recipe on Brown-Eyed Baker’s blog

Version #1 with powdered milk and water is on bouillie written by Celeste.

I looked all over the net for Version #3 made with whole milk and a sponge and could not find it. The BBA group isn’t publishing the recipes. The recipes are on pages 265 – 269.>

 

{ Slow and Steady BBA} Vienna Bread

I am really enjoying making bread again. It is just relaxing to put it all together, knead it into a soft supple dough, and watch it rise into a beautiful loaf. And the fragrance in the kitchen is worth the hour or so wait for it to rise. There is nothing better or more comforting than the smell of fresh bread.

And this one was no different.

Reinhart says that while we spend a lot of time with Italian and French breads we tend to ignore the fact that most of the French breads came via the Austrian bakers who arrived in different parts of Europe . What makes the Vienna Bread different is the inclusion of certain enrichments in the breads of Austria. In this case, diastatic barle malt powder which causes the crust to brown faster.

Loaves or pistolets are suggested with this dough, but I chose to make rolls. 1/2 of the recipe gave me 6 lovely rolls. Perfect for sandwiches.

The rolls were a beautiful yellow with a slightly sweet taste. You need two days to complete the bread. One day to make the pâte fermentée and one for the actual bread baking.

Thse are in Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (page 261)

Kayte and I are finishing up the BBA challenge so check out her bread, too.

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{BBA} World of Bread: Swedish Rye (Limpa) and Tuscan Bread.

Kayte and I are still working our way through Reinhart’s Bread Bakers Apprentice. Last week we made the Stollen. This week we made Limpa and Tuscan Bread.

Swedish Rye aka Limpa

I like rye bread and this one is no exception. It is slightly sweet due to the molasses and brown sugar. The recipe calls for fennel, anise and cardamom as well as orange peel or oil {which I used}. I didn’t have any fennel, but the 1/2 tsp for one loaf didn’t really change the flavor.

The dough was not easy to work with. It is very firm and I kept thinking I had failed totally at this bread. But in the end, it came out just fine. Even the top slashes were good!!!The Limpa reminded me a lot of pumpernickel. But sweeter.

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The other bread is this Tuscan Bread.

This was a beautiful simple bread to make. But it is different from other breads. And it is different for one reason. It contains NO salt. None!! Which means there wasn’t a lot of taste in the bread. According to Reinhart this makes it perfect for “…lavishing it with intensely flavored spreads and pastes, or eating it with flavorful dishes…”

I followed Reinhart’s suggestion and ‘lavished’ it with a Cajun Olive spread.

I also tried it with EVOO flavored with roasted garlic and other spices.

But now I have another idea for this bread – but that’s another post!! {and now you are curious!!}

The bread had a beautiful texture and with a tsp of salt it would be a perfect bread.

Check out Kayte’s Limpa and Tuscan Breads while you are browsing around.

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{bba} Stollen – again!!

I would like to hug my friend, Kayte, for getting me back into bread baking. Especially for making me work on finishing The BBA Challenge. There were actually two groups working on The Challenge. One did a bread each week. We, Slow and Steady BBA, did one every other week. And the last one I did was The Basic SourDough (June 2011). It did not turn out very well, I was discuraged and simply quit making bread, completely. NOW I back in Bread Mode and ready to make more. And when Kayte said she was making Reinhart’s Stollen I knew I had to join in.

As I was writing this post I realized I had actually made this Stollen before (December 2010) as part of MKMW Germany but it was before I joined BBA. It didn’t hurt to make it again. And this time instead of a Batard I used the ‘blanket-in-the-manger’ method.

It was much prettier.

Shape into a rectangle.

Roll the rectangle flat in the center.

Fold the dough over onto itself and shape it into a cresent.

It made a beautiful package with some extra citrus zest and sliced almonds stuffed into the side.

It did ‘come undone’ some while baking but it was a lovely bread with a lovely sweet citrusy taste.

I may have put a wee bit too much powdered sugar on top. In the end, it was a delicious bread. Visit Kayte for her Stollen.

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{BBA} A Sourdough Journal. Chapter 1

SOURDOUGH!!
When I hear that word I always think of San Francisco. I really don’t know why. It just seems to come to mind. San Francisco Sourdough!!

But now I have KOLIN SOURDOUGH!!

Sourdough bread is the next section of Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice. And I have been away from it way too long. So when Kayte said she was getting back into the bread mode and making the sourdough I knew I couldn’t let her go it alone.

I had to redo my starter. I thought it had ‘died’ but after ‘talking’ to Phyl I found out I could have saved it. Thanks for Sourdough 101, Phy. Next time I will know that…

The greyish liquid floating on top of the starter is called “hooch”. It’s basically just dead yeast cells. When my starter has a little hooch on the top, I stir it back in before feeding the starter.

If I had known THAT!!!

Anyway…

I finally got around to making the first bread in the BBA Sourdough section –

Basic Sourdough

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It needed to be sour-er. I needed to let the starter develop more. The bread was a little ‘flat’ but not bad. It was good toasted.

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The next bread in the section was the New York Deli Rye.

What makes this bread unique is the addition of chopped onions which are sweated until soft, cooled, and then added to the barm to help the flavors blend and develop before being mixed with the rest of the dough to bake. This is a two day bread.
And worth every minute/hour/day it takes to make. I only made 1/2 of the recipe which gave me a nice loaf. It rose nicely – unlike the last sourdough

– and then it sank in the middle….

but it was much better in flavor.

1/2 of the recipe gave me a nice 9 x 5 loaf of bread.

I liked it much better than the basic, but I think next time I will add less onions. They were rather overpowering. But then I have never had REAL New York Deli Rye, so I have nothing to compare it with. But I do know it will make corned beef sandwiches or any other kind for that matter. Except maybe, PB & J!!

Next on the list… 100% Sourdough Rye. Whew!

 

{MKMW} At the Table in Germany!!

As I told y’all earlier this year I am an Air Force Brat. And lots of my food memories growing up are not of hot dogs, apple pie, or mom’s pot roast, but rather Wiener Schnitzle, curried anything, scones, and paella. We only lived in Germany and England but we visited as many countries as we could. And the food was always an adventure to us American Tourists.

I was excited when….

….Deutschland

….was chosen for December’s My Kitchen My World country. I could find some of my favorite dishes and just cook to my heart’s content. Well, that was the plan, but you know what they say about the ones that are best made?? It just didn’t work out that way. So here are my simple, but tasty contributions to this month’s virtual world tour.

Peter Reinhart’s Stollen

As part of the Slow and Steady BBA group {yes, we are still plugging along} I made the Stollen for my Christmas Platters. I am really not much on fruit in bread, but the Man is so I made it more for him than anyone. Surprise!! Surprise!! I really liked it, too. I remember my Mom bringing Stollen home during the holidays when we lived in Stuttgart (1965) but this is the first time I have made it. It won’t be the last.

I cannot print the recipe without permission from the author, but you can find it on The Cooking Route who did have permission.

That was breakfast.

Later for lunch {altho not really the same day!!!} We had Bratwurst and….

Spätzle or Tiny Dumplings

This recipe came from a German cookbook that was in my Mom’s collection {which was way bigger than mine…..}

3 cups AP flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs (optional)
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter (optional)

Combine the flour, 1/2 tsp of the salt, and the nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.
Break up the eggs with a fork and beath them into the flour mixture.
Pour the milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly with a large spoon, and continue to stir until the dough is smooth.
Bring 2 quarts of water and the remaining 1/2 tsp salt to a boil in a heavy 4/5 qt saucepan.
Set a large colander, preferably one with large holes, over the saucepan and with a spoon press the dough a few tablespoons at a time through the colander directly into the boiling water.

{I did this last time. NOT FUN!!! Since then I have purchased a handy dandy Spätzle maker.

And even if I only use 1 or 2 times a year it was totally worth it!!!}
Stir the Spätzle gently to prevent them from sticking to each other, then boil briskly for 5 – 8 minutes or until they are tender.
Drain the Spätzle thoroughly in a colander.
When Spätzle are sered as a separate dish they are traditionally presented sprinkled with toasted bread crumbs. {I served mine with some butter and parsley.}

So there you have it. Stollen, Rotwurst, Spätzle, Brotchen. The perfect German Cafe meal. Which we enjoyed many times at a little place down by the Bahnhoff. (With Bier und pommes frites sometimes…)

Visit the other members of

and see their dishes auf Deutschland….

auf Wiedersehen, meine Freundin!!

Und ein gluckliches neues Jahr!!

 

{BBA} Portuguese Sweet Bread

“I learned that even the Hawaiians give credit to the Portuguese for this big, soft, sweet, round pillow of a loaf.”
~Peter Reinhart~

Hawaiian Bread. I had made that before. I liked it. This was going to be good. Except…..

I wasn’t sure if this bread would work out when Kayte and I were Twitterbaking this weekend. (We’ve decided to get back on the BBA wagon and finish up the breads before the end of the year). I was going to make just one loaf from the two loaf recipe. I made 1/2 of the sponge, let it sit until it was nice and frothy and added it to the flour to make the dough.

Just as I emptied the sponge into the mixing bowl I remembered that I was making just 1/2 but had made the whole batch of dough. I quickly made up another sponge, but couldn’t let it sit for the necessary amount of time. I was afraid the other dough/sponge would dry out. I knew I had blown it.

Dang!!

But I struggled on. PR said to place the boule on a pie pan and let it rise until it doubled and overlapped the edges slightly. Needless to say, mine didn’t QUITE make it…..

Regardless of their smaller size they were quite tasty. This bread has a subtle fruity flavor (from the lemon and orange extract) that lingers behind the bite of bread. The previous recipe used pineapple juice. This was a little less sweet than that one. The bread had great crumb and while the crust was thick and somewhat hard it softened as the days went by.

PR’s bread made great French Toast. With Maple Syrup. And Powdered Sugar.

We aren’t publishing the recipes, but I did find it on the breadbasketcase. And visit Kayte’s site. Her bread is lovely.

NaBloPoMo Day 3.

 

{Slow and Steady BBA} Pizza

Pizza!!

The All American Meal! Pizza originated in Neapolitan cuisine and there are still rules as to what could go on the pizza. But over the years with immigration between so many countires, Pizza has become not just a ‘typical’ American but a global food.

Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza EACH DAY, or about 350 slices per second.
There are approximately 69,000 pizzerias in the United States. Approximately 3 BILLION pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year.
93% of Americans eat AT LEAST one pizza per month.

And that makes sense. It is handy, can be made with any number of different types of toppings, and is fairly easy to put together – if you don’t make your own dough. But where is the fun in that??

Amoeba Pizza!!!

Well, it ain’t pretty. I need some ’rounding’ lessons. But it was good. Just a few important toppings. Home made Sauce. Mozzarella Cheese. Black Olives. Canadian Bacon. Caramelized Onions. Fresh ‘Shrooms. But not all on the same pizza.

The dough is from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice and is so easy to work with (Unless you are me!). It is a one day dough. Great elasticity. And it has great taste. I only made 1/2 of the dough and that gave me two medium sized pizzas.

(Like I said, ’rounding’ lessons!)

I had just a little trouble getting the first pizza off the peel, one small piece stuck to the peel, thus the little ‘leg’ on the pizza. After the peel was a little more ‘seasoned’ the pizza came off much easier. Okay, I’ll work on it. But I really don’t mind the shape. It IS the taste that counts after all.

I know Kayte has made the pizza. Somewhere along the way the other Breadies in the Slow and Steady BBA Group – Nancy, Cathy, Leslie, Melissa, Jessica, Sarah, and Di – will catch up. Longing to see how their Pizza turns out.

BTW The pizza wasn’t round BEFORE it went into the oven…..