Bread Baking Babes

One of my favorite bloggers, Ilva of Lucullian delights, inspired me to bake this month BBB's choice, a five-grain bread with walnuts. As a professional baker, I know how important it is to be part of a community of bakers to learn from one another, and I consider myself very lucky to belong to the Bay Area's Baker's Dozen group. I decided that the BBB would be a nice group to to be part of as well (I like the parallel with Ilva too, she lives in Italy but is from the Sweden, I live in the States but am Italian). With this in mind I considered a sign that I own a copy of The Italian Baker by Carol Field, and when I went to measure the ingredients I saw another sign when I realized that I had exactly 300 grams of walnuts like the recipe asks for. I am not sure how I should have interpreted the sign of a ruined recipe by spilled coffee while I was taking pictures, maybe as a hint against sloppiness?

Tanna is the kitchen of the month, and chose the bread, an interesting five-grain bread with walnuts.

Without farther ado, here is my Pane ai Cinque Cereali con Noci story.



Since the coffee spill ruined Tanna's instruction I decided to use the book's version following it step by step, or close (see below). Since I realized I had barely enough dry active yeast for only half the recipe I scaled it down. My yeast had been in the fridge but it was past its expiration date so I made a sponge with 1/8 cup of water, 1 1/2 tsp of dry active yeast, a pinch of sugar and 1/4 cup of the flour mixture to get it going. I let the sponge activate nicely for half an hour and made more coffee. When the sponge showed signs of life I added the rest of the water, the flour-nut mixture and mixed everything in my kitchen aid mixer. After one minute I realized that the dough looked scarily wet so I checked the recipe again and discovered that I had forgotten the a/p flour and I quickly blamed the lack of caffeine (see above). I added the missing flour and let me mixer do its job. I had to add a little bit more flour, just enough to get the dough to gather around the hook.

I then used a method I was taught by my bread mentor to develop more gluten in the dough, the stretch method. I let the dough rest 5 minutes then I stretched and folded it like a letter. I did this once more and then let the dough double in size, which it did very nicely, but it took more than an hour, close to two.

I shaped 600 grams of the dough into two mini loaves and the rest was shaped in min-rolls.

I kind of rushed the raising because I needed to get out of the house and that was a mistake, the bread wasn't ready when I baked it.

In all it was a nice recipe and it tasted very good, especially with some freshly made blood orange marmalade. It is a dense bread with a nice flavor. I would add more salt to the dough, make it wetter next time, and try to let it raise more. What surprised me was the color of the crust, it looks rather dull, not much caramelization. It a keeper.


Pane ai Cinque Cereali con Noci
Five-Grain Bread with Walnuts
adapted from Carol Field

Makes 2 9 X 5-inch loaves
1 1/4cups (300 grams) walnut pieces
3 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 1/2 small cakes (27 grams) fresh
yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 cups water, room temperature
3 3/4 cups (500 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (125 grams) oat flour or finely ground rolled oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) rye flour
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (125 grams) whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup (125 grams) brown rice flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (20 grams) salt

Toast the walnuts for 10 minutes in a 400° F oven; then chop in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or with a sharp knife to the size of a fat rice kernel. Do not grind them finely.
BY HAND:
Stir the yeast into the warm water in a large mixing bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Mix the walnuts, flours, and salt and stir 2 cups at a time into the dissolved yeast, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough should come together easily. Knead on a floured surface, sprinkling with additional all-purpose flour as needed, until firm, elastic, and no longer sticky, 8 to 10 minutes.
BY MIXER:
Stir the yeast into the warm water in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Stir in the flours, walnuts, and salt with the paddle. Mix until the dough comes together. Change to the dough hook and knead for 3 to 4 minutes at medium speed until firm and elastic but still slightly sticky. Finish kneading briefly by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.
BY PROCESSOR:
Make sure your food processor can handle the volume of this dough. Even when done in 2 batches, there will be 4 cups flour to be processed. Stir the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Place the flours and salt in a food processor fitted with the dough blade and process with several pulses to sift. With the machine running, pour the dissolved yeast and 3 cups cold water through the feed tube as quickly as the flours can absorb it; process until the dough gathers into a ball. Process 40 seconds longer to knead. Knead in the walnuts by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.

First Rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Shaping and Second Rise. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. The dough should be moist, firm, and noticeably elastic, if slightly sticky. Cut the dough in half and shape each half into an oval loaf to fit a loaf pan. Place the loaves in the oiled pans (preferably glass), cover with a heavy towel, and let rise until truly doubled and fully above the tops of the pans, 1 to 1 ¼ hours.
Baking. Heat oven to 400° F. Slash a pattern in the top of the loaves. One baker in Milan cuts the shape of a stalk of grain on the top; elsewhere bakers make 3 parallel slashes. Bake 40 to 45 minutes; bake the last 5 to 10 minutes out of the pans on a baking stone or baking sheet to brown the bottoms and sides. Cool completely on a rack.

Nettle Ravioli

I love the taste of fresh pasta. In fact it tastes so good that it only needs some good EVOO (extravergin olive oil), some butter and lots of parmesan cheese. Ever since buying the kitchen aid pasta attachment I have been making pasta often.

Pasta is easy to make and there are plenty of recipes. I make it eyeballing the ingredients, half a/p flour, half semolina, eggs, EVOO, and salt. If it is too dry I add an egg, if too wet I add some flour. Pasta needs to rest before you roll it, to let the gluten relax and to allow the moisture to be distributed.

It all starts with simple ingredients,













then it is resting time,













followed by shaping.











The filling is also simple.

























Buon Appetito!












If there are some dough left over you can roll it up and cut it like tagliatelle.



















Semolina Pasta

3 ounces semolina flour
3 ounces all purpose flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon extravergin olive oil
pinch salt

Mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rest at room temperature for half an hour. Either roll as thin as possible by hand or use a pasta machine. I used my kitchen aid pasta attachment and went to setting 6. Keep the pasta ribbons covered to avoid drying.


Nettle Filling

1/2 pound nettles
1 medium shallots
homemade ricotta cheese
1 egg
pinch of salt
zest of one lemon

Sauté the shallots in EVOO, then add the nettles and cook until wilted. Chop cooked nettles then mix the rest of the ingredients until well blended.

Homemade Ricotta

2 quarts whole milk
2 cups buttermilk

Heat the milk and the buttermilk to 170F. Let stand at room temperature for one hour then strain it through cheese cloth. Keep it refrigerated until ready to use.

A cookie is a cookie is a cookie?

Since Dorie Greenspan participated in a debate with Sara Dickerm and David Lebovitz, I have been intrigued to define what a "delicious cookie" is for me, or better, how I would answer her questions: "What defines a cookie for you? What does the perfect cookie look like? What size is it? What's its texture? What makes a cookie American?"

I am skipping on the last question and leave Americans to answer.

I have three criteria for a cookie to make it into my file of permanent recipes, execution, look, and taste. As a trained pastry chef, I can say that I can tackle almost every recipe I find, but a cookie that has too many steps will not make it unless it has a relatively easy recipe, is beautiful to look at AND tastes excellent. Checkerboard cookies are an example of a cookie with many steps, but it starts with an easy sablée recipe and not only results in beautiful cookies but the taste wins all three criteria.

"Size matters" said a character on Seinfeld, so for me a cookies has to be one or two bites. top. I normally make the cookies much smaller than the recipe calls for. Because I TRY to watch my sugar intake, a cookie has to be super tasty, not too sweet, and small so if I like it I can indulge.

Another big factor, but not a critical one, is the freezing potential of a cookie, as I love to double a recipe and keep some dough in the freezer to bake on a whim. Currently I have three cookie doughs in the freezer which tickled some women's taste buds happy on Tuesday when they sampled them at a neighborhood meeting.

Last but not least is the texture, crunchy usually wins in my world of cookies.

Here are the three stars of Tuesday night and a wish of a:

Happy Valentine's Day

From left to right: Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs by Alice Medrich, Korova Cookies by Dorie Greenspan (aka World Peace Cookies), and Ginger Snaps (recipe courtesy of Chez Panisse Restaurant). All three recipes are easy to make and freeze, look beautiful AND taste excellent.



Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs
Adapted from Bittersweet

3/4 cup whole almonds
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 ounces unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
¼ cup cocoa nibs


Combine the almonds, flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor, and pulse until the almonds are reduced to a fine meal. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a mass of crumbs. Combine the water, vanilla, and almond extract, drizzle them into the processor bowl, and pulse just until the dough looks damp. Add the cocoa nibs and pulse only until evenly dispersed.

The dough will not form a smooth cohesive mass-it will be crumbly but it will come together as you press it into a 6-by 9-inch rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Wrap tight and freeze.

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 325F. Cut the dough into 3/8 inch slices and transfer onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake until golden brown, approximately 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan half way during baking. Cool completely and store in a airtight container.

Thyme Aplenty

Here are few examples of thyme varieties. They all have a scent but some are more fragrant than other, and some are just plain gorgeous with their variegates leaves.

Variegated thyme, decorative.

Plain "old" culinary thyme, already blooming in January!

Decorative groundcover thyme, not very fragrant, super tiny leaves.

This is absolutely my favorite, Lemon Thyme, not only it is a super pretty plant with its yellowish hue, but it can be used for its delicate lemony scent. I use it to flavor custards like pannacotta, creme brulée, ice cream bases, you name it. Did I mention that it is my favorite?

Candied Kumquats

I couldn't resist these beautiful "citrus gems" so I decided to buy some. I did candy them and will use them in a chocolate dessert I am making for my second interview at a local restaurant. According to this book kumquat means "gold orange" in a Chinese dialect, and indeed they look like little oranges.




When I did a pastry internship at the restaurant Chez Panisse I learned a simple recipe to candy this dainty fruit which I had never used before. Because kumquats have a relatively thin pith they don't need to be blanched before being candied, making the process really fast. The only annoying part is the removal of the seeds, as kumquats are really seedy.






Candied Kumquats

Kumquats
Sugar
Water

Slice the kumquats thinly and remove all the seeds and the little stems.
Bring equal parts of sugar and water to a boil to make a simple syrup (i.e. 1 cup of water to 1 cup of sugar).
Add the sliced kumquats to the warm syrup and simmer covered with parchment paper until the fruit is translucent (10-15 minutes). Cool down and store airtight in the refrigerator. The kumquats covered in syrup keep for weeks.

Hellebore

Another early bloomer which is also very hardy. In Italy we call it "Bucaneve" which literally translates as "snowpoker" as the flowers poke through before the snow melts. Another gorgeous plant indeed.

Euphorbias

These beautiful plants are in full bloom in my garden now, in fact they are always the first plants to bloom and their acid green color is just spectacular. I have collected few varieties during the years because of their hardiness and beauty.
I have a variegated sample, some purple ones, miniature ones and some that are just giants.
After bloom the inflorescence lasts many months because what we perceive as petals are actually modified leaves and they live a long time. The actual flowers are indeed very tiny.