BBA#25 Poolish Baguttes







 This is the 25th recipe ( 24th if you don't count the skipped pannetone), of our BBA 2011 challenge.This was a simple recipe, make a poolish starter,a wet bubbly prefermented dough, that ferments at room temp for several hours,then into the fridge overnight ,or up to 3 days. Then the final dough is made,allowed to rise, then keanded briefly to defate and proofed again till double, shaped, proofed again, and baked.
I m still amazed at how  much I need to pay more attention to the dough and feel it,especially if using a stand mixer. It was not as hydrated as thought and had to wet my hands and knead in more water a couple of times to get a tacky dough. This extra kneading,may be the  reason it was a little tough after the bake. So I need to more HANDS ON, lol. many years back, before I bought my kitchen aid, all my breads were truly 'hand made'.
Note: due to storage issues, all previous BBA posts will have only a photo of the finnished loaf.







 


 























Homemade Pastrami

Hot pastrami on real NY deli rye, as good as it gets, providing the pastami is from a NY Jewish deli. Well I'm not in NY , living in the south, yes they pastami here, but it's Not the same. Yes I make home made breads, so I'm HALF way there, so I needed to make my own pastrami. With the internet you can find ANYTHING you need to know, including how to make homemade pastrami, just search it! Which I did!
  OK, it's really a simple method, using a corned beef brisket , a spice rub, aluminum foil and your oven.
I bought my corned beef brisket during St. Patty's Day , when they are on sale, I used the lest exspensive one, and a most exspensive cut, the price difference wasn't that great about a dollar or less per pound.Both were good, but the better brand tasted better. That was last year, this time I bought a whole corned beef brisket from Restaurant Depot ( on sale $2.39lb) ,a business license is required for membership ( I have a business license for my biscotti).  They are also available from the wholesale clubs ,and are usually sold cut in half as flat or point cut, the flat being leaner, or whole. Heck if I'm going to go to the trouble to make this why do a small piece, I'll freeze the other half! The brand I bought ( which I never heard of, only due to my inexperience) was Brea's Best.
Let's make some pastrami:
 
What you will need:
 spice mix for a 5 lb piece ( increase as needed for the size you have)
1&1/2 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper (freshly ground is best, use more if you like it spicy)
2 tbsp ground corriander
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder ( or granulated)
1 tbsp smoked paprika
 heavy duty aluminum foil

 Open package of brisket, rinse thoroughly, pat dry.
  Mix all the spices in a bowl, rub onto all surfaces of the meat, on a piece of foil longer than twice the length of your meat, lay it fat side down. Wrap, sealing and folding edges several times tightly. Once again lay out a similar length of foil, flip over the wrapped meat onto the foil and seal tightly again, do one more time, now the FAT side will be up.
Place on a lipped baking tray, to catch any leaking juices, cook in a preheated 240 degree oven for 5 hours, remove from oven let cool to room temperature (wrapped). Place into fridge overnight. The meat will shrink as the brine cooks out. Considering good pastami is about $10 lb, your still ahead
 Next day unwrap ,discard liquid and wrapping, slice thinly across the grain, heat in a covered pan with a lttle water to help steam it hot, spread your favorite mustard on the deli rye and ENJOY!!













BBA#(23) 24 Pizza Napaletna

Pizza, an awesome food you could probably live on,bread, vegetables (tomatoes, herbs,) olive oil, and cheese!All good for you. Now which type of pizza, well we have thick crust Sicilian and thin crust ,Napaletana. That's my favorite, thin crisp crust that flops it's so thin, dripping with melted mozzarella .
 Living and growing up in Brooklyn NY, Italian pizza was simple to get, when there's one every two blocks! Most were great, some less than, but there are so many preferences and varied tastes, one could find his/her favorite.I attended a junior high, guess their called middle school now, in Coney Island. Johnny's Pizzeria on Mermaid Ave ,two blocks from the school served a thick crust pizza, whole pie,10 slices, $1.50, OK so it's 1958,But the pizza was great to me then, my palette has changed a great deal from my youth.
  This recipe I found to be closest to thin crust pizzeria style .I had an issue in making the dough, given it's a simple one,the dough cleared the sides of the mixer bowl, and then the bottom.So I drizzled in a tbsp of water, get's all sloppy and then absorbs into the dough....and clears the bottom, soo I add more water.Again it gets all sloppy and absorbs into the dough...and once again clears the bottom.After the fourth time it stuck to the bottom...Except ,when I lifted the dough hook, I didn't have dough, I had  oozing blob,that stuck to the wall of the bowl and everything that touched it. OK, add some flour, eventually I had a very tacky dough, which I then cut into 4 instead of the 6 pieces in the recipes. Actually I had doubled the recipe to have some reserve in the freezer, therefore I had eight pieces.   









































WGB # 4 Transitional Cinnamon raisin Bread

This is the fourth bread of theWGB challenge, a group of us are baking our way through Peter Reinhardt's book Whole Grain Breads.It' being hosted by Jenni at  http://somethingtosavor.blogspot.com/2011/05/wgb-challange.html. She rearranged the recipes from transitional to whole grains, so we will start with part whole grain recipes first, a good way to begin.
Most people love/like cinnamon raisin bread,I am of the former group.Toasted, spread with butter/non butter spread, cream cheese, ahh french toast YUMMY! This sweet bread is such a delight, part bread, part dessert, part sweet sandwich bread. I was looking forward to making this recipe,as in all new first attempts the unknown is always present, and sometimes creates minor obstacles to overcome, thus the learning process.
I have made other raisin breads, just never a part whole wheat one, and I do like ww bread, so this was going to be interesting.
 Let's make some bread!!















 


 


























BBA#23 Pane Siciliano

I really enjoyed eating this bread, rich with the flavor of semolina,the sesame seeds adding a touch of nuttiness. The recipe uses a pate ferment ( a batch of pre fermented dough), after all ingredients are assembled and incorporated it's kneaded. allowed to rise till double.Then shaped into the 'S', creating a very handsome loaf, and then right into the fridge for an over night ferment.The slow cold ferment creates a depth of flavor which would be missing with baking after a room temp rise.
        I made this last week, but haven't had time to post it? Now that I'm retired, I often wonder how I found time to go to work! Seem to be always busy with something.... 
Let's make some bread!!                                                  
                                                                                      

Removed the pate ferment from the fridge cut
 it up into lots of small pieces ,will warm faster
that way.





 

Into the mixer bowl, bread flour,semolina,salt yeast ,oil honey, water to make a tacky dough








After about 2 hours, rose nicely

Cut into three pieces

Shaped into baguettes first, allowed to rest,then extended to 18', let rest, then to 24", covered and let rest before I shaped them

Shaped into an 'S' by curling one end to the right and the other to the left

Placed the loaves onto a parchment lined pan, which was lightly oiled and dusted with cornmeal
covered with plastic and went into the fridge over night

Baked on the  pan with a steam pan and spraying water into the oven 3 times at 30 second intervals then lowered oven to 450 and baked 15 minutes,rotated pan and baked 10 minutes more till
 brown  .



  




 



 







 











WGB#2 Transitional Rye Bread

This bread uses a soaker as well as a biga ( a pre fermented dough).The soaker consists ofwhole rye flour and some ww flour,salt and buttermilk. They are blended together ,covered and allowed to soak overnight.The biga is bread flour yeast and water, blended then kneaded to a smooth dough which is then placed in an oiled* bowl or zip bag to ferment in the fridge overnight, which develops flavors.
The following day the final dough is made using the soaker, the biga , rye flour, yeast,salt and molasses, honey and caraway seeds. it is kneaded then proofed for about an hour. It may be shaped into a sandwich loaf, batard, or boule.  It is then allowed to rise not quite double in size (1+1/2), prior to baking  either in a pan or free standing shape on a pan. I baked mine as a boule on the stone.  









BBA#22 Pain De Campagne

This bread I really enjoyed eating,it is flavorful, not too dense,tender crust.With this recipe I did not do a step by step photo process.The dough consists of a pate ferment which is then blended with bread flour and some rye or ww flour,I chose some of each, yeast salt water.It came together easily with a little adjustment of flour. It rose in 2 hours.
I selected three shapes, the crown, the fendu,and the cap. shaping the batard and the boule, I found this method works for me, this is a link a fellow Baker posted, on her blog Life and Bread.

 http://thebackhomebakery.com/Tutorials/MoreBreadShaping.html

The fendu or split batard is cut side down on the pan,the crown shows the creases, the cap is just a piece of dough rolled thin then placed on top of a boule that has been lightly oiled .
They are to rise 1+1/2 their size,which I thought I did properly.

As you can see in the baked loaves, the creases of the crown sealed, as well as the split in the batard.Since the cap is not creased it came out fine.
It seems I may have proofed them past that one and a half point of rise.
Regardless the bread is delicious, sort of a tender Italian type bread, which we really enjoyed, the cap loaf disappeared with dinner!
I would not consider this a difficult recipe other than the shaping may be a little tricky.Although PR has photos of various breads that can be made from this dough, he does not show the baked crown, but shows the fendu which does have a distinctive split.
I can only assume I over proofed the the loaves, the next time i will pay close attention to the proof stage.

Doris' Birthday Breakfast

I made a special breakfast for my wife Doris, special  because it was a upscale version of french toast.I used slices of my Easter Bread ( had in freezer), real bacon, almond cream cheese sauce, diced fresh bananas, coffee,decaf of course, sliced fresh strawberries, glass of juice.

 for the egg custard: 3 eggs, about 1/4 cup heavy cream (may sub milk), 1 tsp real vanilla extract.whisk vigorously to blend.
 Bread: use any rich bread you like, or have, don't use store  soft white bread it won't hold up.IMO 
Almond cream cheese sauce: 1 pkg 8oz softened cream cheese, unwrap place on plate micro wave 15- 20 or more seconds to soften
 2tbsps sugar, 1 tsp pure almond extract, 2-4 tbsps cream or milk, blend thoroughly till smooth.
1 medium banana diced  .

 Procedure:
 Place sliced bread in egg custard to wet and turn to wet other side, leaving in as long as desired to achieve  the wetness you prefer.I personally don't like soggy wet french toast.
Have an electric griddle or skillet , or fry pan heated to 375 .
 Butter griddle or pan generously, place in slices of egg custard soaked bread, cook till golden brown ,then add more butter to pan and turn slices over onto melted butter , brown other side

 To arrange:
Place a slice of the cooked bread on a plate, top with some almond cream, ad diced banana, add second slice of toast, add a dollop of almond cream ,placed a piece of banana in cream, serve with crisp bacon, sausage, ham, or on it's own.
 Serve to the Special person in your life!