BBA Challenge - Focaccia!

I can't believe this worked.  


For Bake-A-Palooza Spring (er, summer) 2010 I decided to make a bread.  At previous BAPs, we stuck to sweets, until last spring when I broke out the Herbed Savory Cheesecake from Cookwise, which turned out to be a huge hit.  As I've been working through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I decided it would be good to give the focaccia a try.  I'm really only somewhere in the Cs, but I wanted to do something savory but cinnamon rolls were next on the list... so I just picked something that sounded good :)

This bread was surprisingly easy, and I do think the fact that I was able to use the weekend to work the dough was definitely advantageous... not to mention the fact that the entire State of Florida is a giant proofing box right now (90+F and 100% humidity).  The dough rose beautifully.  


I started the poolish on Friday evening, letting it sit for about 3 hours before I covered it with a damp towel and aluminum foil and refrigerated it.  I pulled it out to get back to room temperature after Saturday morning's shoot with Ben & Kathy.  After it reached a reasonable temperature and all of the ingredients were combined by hand (i.e., with my bare hands - no utensils or mixers involved!), I did a series of three foldings and risings on the marble countertop in the kitchen.  This dough did not take any kneading at all.  


The herbed oil was made from fresh rosemary, oregano, thyme, and basil that I have growing here at the house. I followed the instructions and did two sessions of dimpling and oiling before putting it into the oven, which was heated to a ridiculous 500F.


When it came out, it was just beautiful and smelled great.  I was so excited that I finally achieved the correct crumb that I had to point it out to half of the attendees.  :)  It was a favorite at Bake-A-Palooza, even if it did turn my kitchen into a furnace.  In June.  In Florida.  Oy.

Ciabatta (Take Two)

Weeellll... I seem to have a hard time following directions.  At least following really specific directions.  The bread was very tasty, but not neccessarily ciabatta-y. :)

To start out, you have to make the poolish one day ahead.  Check.  Poolish made - yeast, flour, water.  So far, so good!  Then you let it ferment for a couple hours and then put the poolish in the fridge overnight... oh dear.  Problem number one:  I was overcome by bedtime before I managed to put it in the fridge.  Doh!  Oh well, we'll just go with it and see what happens.  The poolish looked fine in the morning (was still bubbling and hadn't collapsed onto itself), so it went into the fridge for the day.

Upon returning from a long day of work, I took the poolish out to adjust to room temperature and got everything ready for the rest of the dough-making.  After a good amount of time, I combined the poolish and remaining ingredients and began the rising and shaping process that seems to be pretty specific to ciabatta.  I thought that I had read and followed the directions well enough to not screw it up, but I guess not.  Besides, by the time the last rise had rolled around, it was already coming up on 11pm (someday I really will give this bread thing a try on the weekend!).  At that point, all bets are off as far as direction-following is concerned.  I think part of the problem is that usually I scan a couple recipes, get the basics, and then wing it... I know enough about creaming butter and sauteing garlic that I don't usually read the recipe instructions, so it's really hard for me to focus on every single detail in the directions.  Apparently the details matter in the world of bread!  :)

Anyway, the resulting bread was really quite flavorful (actually tasted similar to knedliky to me) and had a beautifully soft, springy texture inside and a nice, crusty outside, but it didn't have the signature airy crumb of ciabatta.  Well, at least I can say that I tried.  Twice.

Bo and I had this bread with some fresh chevre from Sweet Grass dairy in southern Georgia and some local garlic cheddar made from raw milk.  Hooray for the farmers' market!

Jamie Oliver's TED Talk

I am a fan of TED Talks.  I admit it.  They give people with something important to say the chance to say it, to proverbially shout their message from the rooftops.  Jamie Oliver (you know, The Naked Chef... crazy British cook with his own little show on Food Network?) gave a TED Talk just recently about the role that school food and food prepared outside the home plays in child obesity.  


Interestingly enough, I also received this email this week:

Dear "Food Inc." Fan, Thank you for going to see Food Inc. and for signing the Hungry for Change petition. As official partners of the film, Slow Food USA is thrilled to see the food movement gaining so much momentum. We invite you to continue building that momentum by helping America's schools serve healthier food for lunch. More than 31 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program.  Helping schools serve more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods may be the most promising way to end child obesity and teach good health -- but it simply can't happen unless Congress passes a strong Child Nutrition Act later this month.. Since you signed the Food Inc. petition and chose to receive information from the film's partners, we'll keep you updated on ways to get involved with our Time for Lunch campaign and Slow Food USA.  You can also opt out of future emails by clicking the unsubscribe link below. We appreciate your support. Thank you, Slow Food USA and the Time for Lunch campaign team

I have to say that I'm pretty excited that all this is taking place... that there are a few people shouting from the rooftops.  I know I'm not the only one listening and doing a little happy dance because someone is actually up there and carrying on about this issue.  The thought that someday I might have kids that will be sent off to school and be faced with seriously unhealthy cafeteria food is a little frightening to me.  My hope is that movements like this will really begin to take hold and make a difference, not just for my own theoretical children that might exists someday, but for the rest of the folks out there too.  


Anyway, enough words... here's the talk.  Enjoy.


http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

BBA Challenge: Brioche!

I had a lovely and productive weekend at home... the weather was nice so i opened all the windows and doors and had a serious spring clean and garden preparation.  Part of the weekend included some time making the "Middle Class Brioche".  Brioche is a soft, slightly sweet bread heavily enriched with butter and eggs.  There are varying degrees of the flour to butter ratio, so I decided to go with the 'Middle Class' version, which has two sticks of butter in the dough (about a 2:1 ratio flour to butter), along with five eggs.

This recipe only took one day to make and was surprisingly easy.  I opted for the loaf-shape for my first try and ended up with three small loaves but would like  to experiment with other shapes next time.  The resulting bread was soft, light, and buttery.  Very flavorful with a pleasant yellow-ish color from the eggs.

I was delighted to finally try making it and to discover that it was not that difficult, so it will probably be showing up in other places in the future.  I saw a recipe for brie wrapped in brioche with a fruit chutney somewhere...  Oh, yeah.  That's what I'm talking about.  Bring it on!

And about two weeks straight at the gym afterwards.

BBA Challenge: Artos - Greek Celebration Bread

I was ready for this bread to be an epic fail, but it at least looks alright so far.  I was unable to decorate the dough with the cross-shape; the dough I had reserved for that simply wouldn't cooperate, so I made it into two small boules and threw them into the oven.  I tried a bite of one and it seems to be lacking something.  I'll have to read through the recipe again to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I think I will be adding the glaze to the loaf, as the mini-loaves seem to suggest that it could use all the help it can get!

The recipe called for spices, raisins, nuts, lemon or orange zest (I used orange) and honey for this particular loaf (Christopsomos), which should give it a unique flavor.  It was a poolish recipe, so I used "baker's math" to up the formula for poolish so that I'd have enough for this dough as well as the next poolish recipe in the book - Ciabatta.  Right now that's chilling in a pre-proofing state and hopefully I can get that baked tomorrow.

On top of working with these two breads, I also managed to make palak paneer (with from-scratch paneer) for dinner, dirty up and then wash at least three sinkloads of dishes, and cleaned up a bit around the house.  No wonder I'm exhausted. 

Would love to hear about others' experiences with this bread!

ETA: Salt.  I think there was an issue with the salt.  Maybe next time I should try two batches - one by the book and one with a little extra salt and honey.  I'm not sure at this point whether I used the recommended amount or not... maybe i missed it all together?