Recuperation - My Poolish Never Fails

Sunday, I demonstrated the baking skill of a lemur. My wild starter was used prematurely which (maybe) resulted in a miserable failure of a boule. I then threw together a straight dough American style wheat for the week for sandwiches. Would've been great if I took it out of the oven before it fossilized. I've contacted the Smithsonian, they may want to shellac it and use it in their Julia Child installation. Still waiting for the call. Sunday night, I had the nerve to start a poolish starter; the way Dan Leader does. I then propagated it for a couple days and got an awesome starter with only 1/8 teaspoon of dry yeast. I know it's cheating and it's not Mother Earth and all that, go to hell, it's my blog.

So, last night, I took some of my poolish (300 grams), tossed it in the bread machine and added water (300 g), unbleached white flour (450 g), salt (12 g, kosher, lent you know - and hey go confess) and another 1/8 teaspoon of dry yeast. The machine kneaded for 30 minutes and let rise for an hour to give a nice sloppy dough (slack). I plopped it out of the machine, degassed (the dough silly) and let it rest for 15 minutes. I then took my cloth lined basket (pic 1 of 4) and dusted it liberally with flour, rounded the dough blob into a boule and plopped it in the basket and covered it with a moistened muslin towel and let it rise for an hour while the oven preheated (450F). I turned the dough out onto the peel (pic 2) and slashed it. I then slid it into the clay tile-lined oven, gave it a steam shot (60 mLs from a squirt bottle) and closed the door and let it bake about 50 minutes. Didn't turn it once. America's Next Top Model was on, couldn't be bothered. Took it out probably a tad early. I like my breads dark on the exterior but it still had a pretty good crust, even this morning.

Yeah, I know the yeast thing is sad crutch but I really like the results. I'll keep cultivating the wild yeast thing to see if I can bring it to same level of behavior as the poolish. If you get Leader's Book and want to try it, I have some serious modifications that I think make his methods better. Contact me if you're interested.

A Miserable Failure

03/20/04 Sat Morning
1. starter, 150 g; water 225 g; unbleached white flour, 400g; mixed and let rest 20 minutes (autolyse).
2. added salt, 10 g and machine (KitchenAid) kneaded for 10 minutes.
3. let ferment 3 hours @ ca. 70F.
4. pre-shape, 15 minutes (deflate)
5. shape into boule, let rest one hour covered in muslin-lined basket.
6. into fridge 10 hours
7. removed from fridge, removed wrapping and covered with moist muslin towel, ca. 65F, 8 hours
8.dumped loaf onto peel, slashed
9. popped into 500F preheated (1 hour) oven, changed thermostat to450F and baked 45 min.

Results
Let's just say there's no pic here because the memory of this horrid experience will last a long time without the aid of a digital image. It took every bit of integrity I had to not scrap the entire entry.

The loaf had an awesome crust, it was about 661 g post-cooking weight and about 8" in diameter. But the taste was horrible. I think the last rise was too long. However, it was dead way before the last rise. The dough wasn't slack enough and the kneading was too short. I really like the way my bread machine kneads. I know this sounds like a cop out but I've had the best loaves when the machine kneaded it for a long time. Oh well. I'll continue to use my starter in the same way I was using a poolish.

Warning: Wicked Boring Entry: Starter [Lot No. 1025]

What's with this lot no., what am I, a quality control freak?
This blog is more than just exhibitionist cooking. Given how cheap hosting and disk space are these days, I've decided to keep my little cooking notes here. To bore you all. Blog entries satisfy my scientific habits of documentation. I can pull the entry back whenever I want and continue adding data.

The lot numbers? The only problem with a spot on the blog archives is it gets labeled with this ridiculously long url. I noticed the other day, I can create a symbolic link to a blog entry to look it up fast. For instance, davesbeer.com/1024 is the link for the fermenting batch of wine (currently gurgling away in my basement). So, when I give a bottle away, I plan to label the bottle with a lot number (the url). This way, when the recipient ends up in the emergency room, the doc can quickly go to his laptop, plug in the easy-to-remember url and find the details of the poison in his patient - directly from my site! Cool huh?

Today's entry is another fermentation project. Inspired by Deb's amazing artisan loaves a la Silverton's La Brea book, I'm going to begin a starter. And, since I have a lifelong problem with authority, I've decided to create the starter the way I believe it should be done. Here's the beginning of my effort. I'll pull this out again as I update it. This entry will have a link corresponding to davesbeer.com/1025.

03/15/04: Unbleached white flour, 400 g; Rye/Wheat (1:1, w/w), 100g; water, 250 g; 9 red globe grapes (I ate the 10th), mushed in the mixture. It was left to sit at room temperature (rt).
03/17/04: The mush was a seething, smelly, disgusting slop that was full of tiny gaseous pores. Excellent. Something was happening. I removed the grapes (and seeds) and discarded most of the mixture. I then added about 100 g unbleached white flour to the remaining batter and mixed it with a spoon to a slightly more stiff batter and let it sit overnight. It looked to be quite active by the morning. Tonight I'll dump out most of it and start a daily regimen of feeding with 100 g flour and 100 g water.
03/18/04: A smelly seething porridge indeed. It's very active. I discarded all but ca. 50 g and mixed in 120 g unbleached white flour (ubw) and 120 grams water. The next morning it had fermented nicely. Volume increase and very porous. I'll be repeating the procedure of discarding all but 50-100 grams and charging approximately 100 g flour and water nightly until my first use. I'll probably maintain it by feeding it every other night. I don't like refrigeration of starters. Too much time to do temp adjustments. I'm considering doing the first loaf on Sunday.

Naan?

I tried Alberto's recipe for Naan the other day. I measured stuff a bit more specifically (so I'd be in a better position to make changes if need be, no offense Alberto). The specifics:

Ingredients
water, 100 g
plain (lowfat) yogurt, 100 g
active dry yeast, 1 t
butter, 1 T (didn't have ghee)
unbleached white flour, 300 g
salt, 5 g

Prep
-preheated oven to 500F with clay tiles in lower third of oven.
-straight dough method, 30 minute knead
-1st rise, 60 minutes
-2nd rise, 60 minutes
-divided into 4 portions and pressed out into ca. 8" disc
-covered the dough discs with a moist muslin towel and let rest 20 minutes
-docked each piece (poked it with my fingers) and put sesame seeds on 2 of 4 them
-baked about 5 minutes each.

Results
They came out pretty rigid, not like floppy Naan should be. I don't blame anything in Alberto's recipe for this. I suspect it could be one of two things. The flour I used may have been too strong (high in protein) OR the dough may have been not "slack" (wet) enough resulting in a pizza shell-like result. They tasted awesome though, just not like Naan. It was a tasty accompaniment (sp?) to an Indian dish of seasoned chickpeas/tomatoes and chicken. Yum.

Lentil Soup

The other night we were too busy to cook (childcare, etc.) and went to a favorite take out place for dinner, Cedar's Bakery, a Turkish place. They have interesting delicacies to take-away: a killer vegetable omelet, kibbe, these middle eastern-type calzones and a small selection of groceries. I happened to see these delicate little orange lentils and bought a 5 pound bag of them. Tonight I made a pretty nice soup of them. At the last minute (at the suggestion of my love) I put in a mixture of greens (turnip, collard, kale, etc.) and the soup turned out to be good and healthy. Since the Frankster has started eating what we eat, we've been trying to incorporate more veggies in our meals. This soup was healthy and balanced. We had it with crusty bread.

Lentil Soup with Extra Veggies
bacon fat (alright, so it's not vegetarian, lay off, gotta get the flavor somewhere), 2 T
olive oil, 1 T
red onion, 1 finely diced
carrots, 2 finely diced
garlic, 1 clove, sliced thin
lentils, little orange ones, 1 C
water, 3 C
mixed finely chopped greens (anything), ca. 1 C packed
salt, pepper, rosemary

Pretty simple prep. Saute veggies in bacon fat and a little olive oil until softened, add lentils and quickly saute them. Add water, spices and barely simmer for about an hour. About 15 minutes before serving, add greens and continue simmering. Serve up with crusty bread. We have crusty bread with everything. Atkins, go to hell. Oops - he's already there.

Survival - The Brainless Meal

Girl's gotta eat just posted a simple recipe of Lentils and Rice as a meal that requires little thought. It sounds good and thought I'd contribute my own recipe for a busy schedule. We're having it tonight. It's pasta based of course. It's a dish of greens, pasta, sausage, nuts and raisins.

Greens, sausage, pasta, nuts, raisins, etc.
1. Cook half pound of pasta, strain, reserve.
2. In a large skillet, saute sausage (ca. 1/2 lb, italian).
3. Add greens to skillet (tonight will be swiss chard, but in a pinch we used bagged mixed greens)
4. Saute greens a bit, add some water and cover till they steam and wilt.
5. Add nuts and raisins (pine nuts are best).
6. Add reserved pasta (gemelli is good for this).
7. Finally, season with salt and pepper and serve.

If the greens are prepped, the enitre meal, including cooking the pasta is about 20 minutes. Maybe I'll add a pic tonight.

Berry Crisp

One of my favorite food authors lately is Mark Bittmann. He's a regular contributor in the New York Times Wednesday food section and is referred to as "The Minimalist". He's the kind of cook I can relate to. Takes risks by venturing into new cuisines but seeks out the basic principles and shoots for the simple recipes that capture the cuisine in a few ingredients.

Today's post isn't about any exotic cuisine, but it is simple. The Crisp. A cornerstone of traditional American Desserts. Recipes are all over the place but Bittman's looked really good. I tried it, lost the recipe and then modified what I remember of it. I used less butter than in the original recipe and I shouldn't have. The original "crust" was excellent, this one was ok but could have been better. I also used a tablespoon of corn starch over the fruit to make it less runny. That part I liked. Held together nicely. I'll have to go back to Barnes and Noble to find the original recipe and jot it down; sorry Mark, raising a kid's expensive and cookbooks are a low priority.

Also note the use of self-rise flour, of which I've become a fan or. Makes the recipe go a lot faster.

Blackberry Crisp, big one, enough for 12 people or so
1. oil a 9x13 glass dish, preheat oven to 350F.
2. toss 2 bags (16 oz) of frozen blackberries, 1/2 C sugar, 1-2 T cornstarch and dump in prepared dish
3. cut 2 sticks butter in 3 cups self-rising flour (original recipe used 1 stick butter/cup of flour)
4. mix flour mixture with 5 beaten eggs
5. plop flour/egg mixture on top of berries
6. bake @ 350F for an hour
7. yum

Cinnamon and Raisin Scones

The local coffee place in Columbus is called Cup 'O Joe. The coffee is ok but their pastries are inedible. They sell these big brown colored lumps of hard dough embedded with chunks of fossilized fruit. They're stale, I suspect at least 3 days old, and they call them scones. If you're unfortunate enough to be lured into buying one of these horrid blocks of starch it's kind of funny to hear the cashier ask if you want it heated up. As if a microwave is going to breath a bit of flavor into these dried up stale pieces of crap.

I knew it wouldn't be hard to do better.

Mine are a modification of the biscuit recipe that's posted on the side of every baking soda can in the world. For convenience, I've been using self-rising flour too. Self-rising flour is simply a fixed mixture of flour:baking powder:salt. I've been using it for biscuits and related baked goods lately. It's pretty awesome.

Cinnamon & Raisin Scones - makes 6
self-rising flour, 2 C
sugar, 3 T
butter, unsalted, 6 T
milk (I used 1%), 2/3 C
cinnamon, ca. 2-3 t
raisins, handful

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Mix self-rise flour and sugar
3. Cut butter into self-rise flour (or use 2 C flour, 1 T baking powder, 1/2 t salt)
4. Sprinkle cinnamon and add raisins to the mixture.
5. Add milk, mix with wooden spoon until the mixture clumps into a ball.
6. Knead briefly and squash into a ca. 6-8" squat disk.
7. Cut disc into 6 pie pieces.
8. Arrange triangular pieces on parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Brush each triangle with milk and sprinkle a bit of sugar prior to baking (for a nice crusted glaze)
10. Bake 15-18 minutes.

Day 4

A slice of the loaf I made Sunday is pictured here, 4 days later. It tastes as good today as it did then. Not quite as crunchy but still full flavored.

In Reinhart's book, he speaks of the famous Poilâne family of Paris. They make a wheat bread that is shipped all over the world. I've had it. It's very old school. Every baker in the Poilâne family of bakeries sees each loaf through from "cradle to grave". From development of the starter to final baking. Reinhart even claims that Max Poilâne believed his bread to be better by the fifth day than on the first. He made and sold a loaf that was several pounds in mass and was meant to feed a family for a good fraction of a week.

I'm not saying I've achieved anything close to a Pain Poilâne, but that rustic country loaf was darn good and fed us a good chunk of the week with a hearty bread that was still tasty 4 days later. I'm proud of it and will try to repeat it soon.

Country French

Pain de Compagne, or country French is something Trish and I have had all over France. It's the most common bread offered while dining in France. Although its quality and characteristics vary from brasserie to brasserie, it has some common features. It's usually wheat, a round loaf, crusty with large holes and is derived from a starter of some kind but does not have a strong sour flavor. I've yearned to make this style forever (to a level I was satisfied with). I tried again this weekend. Twice. The first, unfortunately, was not as good but we brought it to dinner anyway (sorry Gail and Roger for taking a less than perfect loaf but thanks for an exceptional dinner!). The second attempt, I was absolutely thrilled with. It reminded me of the better loaves I've had in France.

The breakthrough came as I caught the end of America's Test Kitchen on our local PBS station a couple weeks ago. They were making Rustic Country Bread. Breads like this have extraordinarly simple recipes. Flour, water, salt, a trace of yeast and optionally, low levels of enrichment (honey and/or olive oil). It's ALL process. You have to see these loaves prepared to appreciate the subtlety of the methods involved. What caught my attention on this show is how long they baked it. A final internal temp of at least 210F but more importantly, they cooked it to a dark brown. Dark. This method calls for a sponge, but I believe the way in which it's described, it's actually a poolish.

This site is free but requires a registration; absolutely worth the time. Their recipe is probably sufficiently detailed to follow. I made a couple critical changes: i. I used Montana Sapphire unbleached white flour and some wheat and rye, ii. to prepare the final dough, I used a bread machine to knead and do the first rise (this is a slack dough and I don't have the patience to knead a slack dough and it's messy). A bread machine is great at kneading slack doughs. The honey addition looks a bit odd but the concentration is small enough to not make the loaf sweet. I also baked my loaf at 425F and cooked the crap out of it. I believe I baked it a full 50 minutes. I let it cool an hour and sliced it up. Julian's parents and Trish and I savored this rustic loaf with a bit of Egyptian feta for a quick snack. Reviews were quite favorable.

It's in the Details

Before I went to the hospital this past weekend to have my chest hair removed by little sticky adhesive electrode patches, I was doing a couple of final runs for the baguette piece. I wanted to remove two items in the procedure to make it a prep anyone could perform with little or no special equipment.

The two items I thought might give some people trouble were: i. the use of a bread machine for kneading/first rise and ii. the use of the special baguette pan I use. So, I decided to try to validate the procedure removing each variable, one at a time. I discovered something interesting. Even though this particular bread recipe is only a straight dough method, it's complexity is astounding. By replacing the bread machine 30-minute knead cycle with a 5 minute hand knead (a timed full 5 minutes of vigorous kneading), I changed the final loaf significantly. It had a tad less volume, the crackly crust was a little different but the big difference in texture AND taste resulted from the finer crumb. The machine kneaded crumb is delicate and cloud-like in appearance, but tasty. The hand kneaded interior was finer in appearance and the taste was "mealier" for lack of a better characterization. It surprised me. I'm going to stick with what works for now and stay with the machine. This bread is worth pursuing at any price.

Yay!

Guess what happened today? No, Conagra Foods didn't offer me a job baking all day because I endorsed their flour, Montana Sapphire; our local supermarket turned into a Giant Eagle and it has its grand opening today. I stopped in on the way back from daycare because it would make me even more late for work.

I love supermarkets. Trish and I always check out the local supermarket whenever we visit a new place (Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, LaGrande, Oregon). Even huge chain supermarkets can't help but reflect local aspects of the community in which they're placed. Today, for the grand opening our local Giant Eagle is having a big presentation for the press and all kinds of fancy activities. Their produce section is greatly expanded compared to the last store that occupied that spot and they even have rehired the surly Somalian cashiers. It's just like home again.

I Have It

For as long as the Weber_cam has been in existence (plus about 15 years prior to its launch), I've been damn close to reproducibly baking a baguette that would rival some of the best French bakers. Not an artisan loaf derived from carefully nurtured natural yeasts; a quick loaf with a good crust (for the adults), soft tender inside (for the kids) and neutral enough in flavor to accompany any food perfectly.

It is here.

I'm just thinking about when I'll have time to present it in its entirety. I'd like to produce something like the Pizza piece, but I'm still organizing things. Frankie introduces an element that complicates things as well. She's a rowdy kid and I can't just fuss obsessively with photos and stuff while I'm putting together a loaf - so it might be a while. But I do like to share and hopefully, someday, you'll all be taking a shot at this awesome creation in the comfort of your own kitchen.

(ps I've corrected some of my awefully placed apostrophes, thanks my love)

Doughnuts

Trish jumped into the action this past Saturday with a nifty treat. From the Better Homes and Gardens book, she made doughnuts (or donuts, whatever). Pretty easy recipe. Yeah, they're deep fried but we had a couple people over to help eat the goods even though we really wanted to finish them ourselves. Frankie even ate a piece.

In the donut spectrum of krispy creme glazed on one end and a kind of hard cake-like on the other, these came in closer to the krispy kreme end. Kind of soft but slightly crispy on the outside and very tender inside. We just coated them with a little sugar and cinnamon. I tried to get a crunchier exterior by frying one a bit longer (that one in the front slightly to the right) but it just got darker, not crunchier. Anyway, a success. Not exactly healthy enough to do too much, but a lot of fun once in a while.