Sourdough Starter Day 5

Yesterday was a repeat of Day 2. so I added 1/2 cup of rye flour and 1/4 cup water. Stir, cover and set aside.

Today, Day 5, is a repeat of Day 3, so I stirred the mixture, discarded half and added 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup water and 2 tsp rye flour. Mixed and covered, and put culture aside to sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Sourdough Starter-Day 3

Well I'm making a sourdough starter. I can see success so far, as of day 3. It must be about 40 years since I did this before. A lot less scientific then, if I remember correctly, but very Mother Earth.

This time, I'm using the formula from Lauren Chattman's Bread Making for what she calls Fool Proof Sourdough Starter.

Day 1

1/4 cup water
1/2 rye flour

Combine flour and water in a glass bowl. Stir till smooth with just a few lumps. Cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 2

Stir mixture. Mine had not done much.

Add 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup rye flour. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. During the day I did begin to see some fermentation and growth in the mixture.

Day 3

Definitely seeing bubbling and a doubling in volume.

Stir mixture and discard half. Put remainder in clean glass bowl. Add 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup water and 2 tsp rye flour. Mix and cover, and let culture sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Brioche Crescents and Brioche Parisienne - Day 2

The morning of day 2, I pulled the brioche dough out of the fridge and prepared to turn it into two variations of Brioche, as outlined in The New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton. Since it has no illustrations, I looked for images to confirm the appearance of these type of Brioche.

First I divided the dough into 2/3 and 1/3 and put the smaller piece back in the fridge, while I made the following. The dough was stiff and puffy, but easy to work.

Brioche Crescents:

This required rolling the dough out into a rectangle, about 10 inches by 34 inches, and then cutting it lengthwise in half. Then each strip was cut into triangles, Each triangle was then rolled up from the wide end to form a crescent. These were placed on a parchment covered baking tray . Each crescent was brushed with an egg/milk wash and left to rise till doubled in size. This took about 45 minutes

Oven was pre-heated to 450 degrees and crescents were baked for about 25 minutes till golden brown.

Brioche Parisienne:

The rest of the dough was taken out of the fridge, and cut it into 10 to 12 pieces. Each of these were rolled into balls and placed in a zigzag pattern into a greased bread pan. Some of the smaller balls were used to fill in the spaces. Pan was covered with plastic and left to rise. This too more than 2 hours.

Oven was pre-heated to 350 degrees and the Brioche was baked about 50 minutes till golden brown.


Results were fine. Lovely light crust and soft crumb. Great with butter and jam!

What I don't understand though is why the difference in baking temperature? As I venture further into my study of the chemistry and mystery of bread making, I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Brioche Crescents & Brioche Parisienne -Day 1

I have decided to make Brioche again, this time using the classic recipe for Brioche with Starter from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of breads. There are some differences from the earlier recipe I tried from the New York Times Cookbook, especially in the Starter preparation.

Brioche with Starter

Starter Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup all-purpose flour


Dissolve yeast in warm milk This was harder than disolving it in warm water. Not sure why.
Stir in flour till its a shaggy mess and mix for 3 minutes. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.

Dough Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
6 eggs at room temperature
1/4 -1/2 cup water warm (105-115)
3 tbsp sugar
1/1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup butter at room temperature

Prepare dough first, by putting 2 cups flour in bowl of stand mixer.. Break 4 eggs into well in middle of flour and mix with spatula blade. Add 1/4 cup water, sugar, salt and blend to make batter. I added a bit more water at this point.
Soften butter and add to batter along with 2 more eggs. Mix on slow with dough hook until butter is incorporated. Stop mixer and add starter to dough and mic for 8 to 10 minutes until both doughs are mixed. The dough will be somewhat soft and tacky.I did add a few more tsp on flour.

Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic. Leave at room temperature till doubled, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough and turn with hand and place back in bowl and cover. Refrigerate overnight.

Rustic Ciabatta Day Three

If you read my previous post you will know that I did not bake all of the dough from my Rustic Ciabatta experiment. Instead I refrigerated about 60% of the dough overnight, to bake the next day, for company. So the following day I took out the dough and let it rest to come to temperature. Next I cut it into two pieces and spread them out on parchment covered baking sheets. I dusted them with flour and covered each pan and let them rise. This took about 2 hours. In the meantime I pre-heated the oven to 475 degrees.

Uncovered the loaves and sprayed the oven with water. Put in my loaves, sprayed the tops, and sprayed the inside of the oven again every 10 minutes.The loaves were ready in 30 minutes. Results were fine; a little less risen than the loaf from the day before, but large crumb and chewy texture.

Rustic Ciabatta!!!

Well I've tried to make ciabatta for the first time. Quite something. The whole process of retarding fermentation means that it can 2 to 4 or 5 days to complete the process of making this type of "rustic" bread.

I started the day before yesterday to make stage one: the "biga".  I ended up using an adaptation of a recipe from Crust to Crumb which Peter Reinhart calls a Universal Rustic Loaf, with some shortened steps using suggestions from Lauren Chattman's version of Ciabatta, from her Bread Making book

My version of the recipe follows.

Rustic Ciabatta

Biga Style Pre-Ferment:

16 oz unbleached bread flour
1 1/4 cups cool water
1 tsp instant yeast

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl, and stir until mixed. Kneed for 5 minutes and dough is smooth and tacky. Cover bowl with plastic and let stand for 3 to 5 hours, or till doubled.

Punch down and cover and refrigerate overnight. Freeze any biga not used in recipe

Rustic Ciabatta:
16 oz biga
16 oz unbleached bread flour
1 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 tbs olive oil
1 cup cool water

Take out biga an hour before using. Measure amout needed. Freeze balance for another time.
Measure and combine all other ingredients in bowl of stand mixer. Cut up biga into small pieces and add to mixer. Use paddle attachment and mix slowly till everything is combined. Put in dough hook and mix for 8 minutes till dough is very sticky. I had to add a bit more water to achieve this consistency.

Cover bowl and let sit for 3  to 4 hours till about 1 1/2 times. Scrape dough onto heavily floured counter.  Divide into 2 or 3 pieces and loosely shape into rectangles. I was not planning to bake all of that day, so I put one ball of dough back into a bowl, covered it and put it back into the refrigerator overnight.

With heavily floured hands transfer dough to parchment covered pan and stretch dough to make a long flatish
loaf shape. Dimple top with fingers and dust with flour and cover with plastic Le t stand till dough is bubbly on surface.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Put pan on bottom shelf of oven and add boiling water to create steam

Put pans in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Spray oven with water to start and after 10 minutes.
Loaves should be golden brown when done. Cool on wire racks. Interior crumb should be open and airy.

I am very pleased with the results! Lovely taste and texture.

Walnut Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe comes from Bernard Clayton't New Complete Book of Breads, and is for a very earthy bread. Simple recipe with great results. I was looking for a good bread that can be sliced thin and keep well. This seems to be a good candidate. This is my version of the recipe


Walnut Whole Wheat Bread

5 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
5 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2 cups hot water 120 to 130 degrees
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp butter
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

2 medium greased bread pans

Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with salt, yeast and dry milk. Pour in hot water, honey and butter. Stir till blended. About 1 minute in stand mixer using flat blade

Add one cup of flour a bit at a time until it is a sticky mess. Let stand for about 5 minutes. Replace blade with dough hook, and slowly add rest of flour and knead about 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Turn out into bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let sit for 1 hour or so and dough is puffy.

Punch back dough and turn out on floured work surface. Flatten dough into rectangle and place walnuts in middle. Knead the walnuts into the dough until evenly distributed. This will take about 4 to 5 minutes.

Divide dough to fit pans.

Cover pans and let rise until almost double. About 45 minutes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Bake 45 minutes and loaves are pulling away from sides. They should be golden brown.

Let cool on wire racks.

Great toasted with jam or cheese.

Rabbit and Kohlrabi Stew

Since I had some rabbit left from New Year's Dinner, I took it off the bone and decided to make it all into a stew. Added kohlrabi diced, as well as sliced carrots. Some more mustard and Veloutine for thickening and voila. Rabbit Stew. The kohlrabi is a nice choice with the latent mustard in the sauce. Quite tasty.

Baguette

I wanted to try making a baguette again. My last attempt was tasty enough, but flat and not too "authentic". I used a recipe from Lauren Chattman's Bread making: Crafting the Perfect Loaf, for Daniel Leader's 4 Hour Baguette. Some differences to other recipes that I have used, but the results were perfect! Here are my adaptations to the original recipe, since I don't have baking stones.

Baguette 
Makes 2 loaves

8 ounces room temperature water 70 degrees or even cooler if the kitchen is warm
3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 cups plus 2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Combine water, flour, yeast and salt in bowl of stand mixer and stir with rubber spatula till a rough dough forms.

Kneed dough by machine on medium for 10 to 12 minutes till it clears sides of bowl and it is still a bit lumpy.

Put in bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap and set aside till dough is puffy with bubbles on the surface. About 45 minutes.

Give dough a turn. Lift up up and set it down on its side, and cover again. Let sit till increased by 50%or so. About 45 minutes to 1 hour. Dough will be very soft.

Turn out dough on lightly dusted surface and cut into 2 even pieces. I had to resist adding more flour at this point since the dough felt almost too soft to handle. 

Fold into a rectangle and let sit for 10 minutes.

Shape each piece into baguette shape 12 to 14 inches long and place on parchment covered baking tray about  4 inches apart. Then lift up parchment in between loaves so the loaves are close together and place rolled up kitchen towels on other side of parchment to cradle and support loaves while baking.  This is a neat alternative described by Lauren Chattman for proper baguette pans.

Sprinkle with flour and cover with plastic and let stand until puffy and almost double in size, about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. and place pan with hot water on bottom shelf of oven.

Remove towels and pull parchment so its flat.

Put diagonal cuts on top of loaves with sharp knife. I was nervous doing this because the dough was so soft, so my cuts did not go deep enough.

Spray over with water and put tray on middle rack in oven and bake till golden brown, about 25 minutes. Spray again after 10 minutes. This was my version, since I don't have baking stones.

Cool on wire racks.

Bread looked great and tasted just like it should, chewy  and springy. The crumb looked great too. 

Cream of Chestnut Soup

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Braised Rabbit with Onion and Mustard Sauce

New Year's Day Dinner and I decided I wanted to do rabbit. I've had rabbit a few times in restaurants, but I have never cooked it before. Hunted around in a few of my cookbooks and come up with a recipe I wanted to try from the New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins of the Silver Palate cookbooks. I needed to adapt it since the original which was " inspired by a dish from Restaurante Du Marche in Paris". called for three rabbits!!! Bit much for our small family. So here is my version

Braised Rabbit with Onion and Mustard Sauce

2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil
1 rabbit cut up
black pepper
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tbsp brown sugar
t tsp thyme
1 tsp ground fresh ginger
1 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp mustard ( used a thyme lemon flavoured mustard)
Veloutine or other thickening agent.if required

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sprinkle pepper on rabbit. Heat butter and olive oil and brown rabbit. Transfer rabbit to oven casserole dish and cook onions and garlic till translucent.Add brown sugar, thyme and ginger to onion/garlic mixture. Add stock and mix. Pour over rabbit and cover dish Put in heated oven for 45 min to 1 hour.
Remove rabbit to serving dish and keep warm. Pour sauce into pan and bring to boil. Boil down by 1/3. Puree sauce and add mustard, and enough of a thickening agent make a not too thick sauce. Pour sauce over rabbit and serve.

All in all a pleasant taste. I would increase the mustard and ginger if I did this recipe again. Perhaps add a bit of cinnamon and/or allspice.

Shrimp and Scallop Paella

Last minute decision to make a Paella for New Year's Eve dinner. I had not made one of these for decades I'm sure. I followed my instincts and this was the result.

Recipe follows:

Shrimp and Scallop Paella

1 cup Basmati rice
2 cups water
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp saffon
1 onion cut up
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red pepper
1 small eggplant chopped
1 carrot sliced asn pre cooked
1/2 cup peas
1 cup shrimp deveined
1/2 cup bay scallops
1/2 tsp spice mixture* see below

Cook rice in water with salt and saffron.

Melt butter and olive oil and cook onion and garlic till soft. Add  eggplant and pepper and cook till browned and soft. Add to rice and. Toss in shrimp, scallops, peas and carrots and season to taste.

My Special Spice Mixture

I always have a small jar of this on hand. I use it in almost everything that needs a little zing!

Special Spice Mixture

½ cup paprika

¼ cup chili powder

3 tbsp salr

2 tbsp dried coriander

2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp mustard powder

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp thyme

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp cayenne

Mix all ingredients together.

Store in airtight container and store in cool dry place away from heat and light.

Can be used as a rub on meat and as seasoning in a variety of dishes.